By Zephyria 
Ha-jin was staring out the window at the desolate fields passing by. He had fallen asleep at some point during his conversation with Eden, and when he opened his eyes, the sun had already risen. After getting up with a stiff body from the glaring sunlight, the group was once again carrying their luggage and leaving the city.
Thump…!
“Ugh!”
Groans erupted from everywhere. The car was constantly acting up, as if its tires were hitting speed bumps incessantly. Byeol, who had hit his head on the ceiling, complained, “Hey! Drive carefully!”
“The road is a mess, so it doesn’t matter how carefully you drive.”
Eden sighed and slowed down. His words weren’t just an excuse. From the moment they passed the roundabout, the roadbed was collapsing in places. They hadn’t even reached the Namsangwon tollgate yet.
As they swerved to avoid small sinkholes, puddles of water appeared out of nowhere, and the tires kept getting submerged. The car crawled as slowly as a turtle. It was so sluggish that it would be difficult to escape even if zombies swarmed them.
“Why is the road like this? It’s a mess, like someone deliberately tore it up…?”
Next to a dumbfounded Mi-so, Park Chun-beom shouted.
“I think the underground tunnel is flooded! As the water fills up, it must be washing away the soil under the road.”
“Why would the road suddenly be flooded when it hasn’t even rained?”
To the question that didn’t make sense, Park Chun-beom adjusted his broken glasses on his nose as if it was time to show off his long academic background.
“Well, since it’s a city with a lot of subways, the tunnels fill up with water every day, and they have to pump it out to withstand the water pressure. If the operation is stopped, the underground is most likely full of water. That probably affected the ground as well.”
Despite completing his reasonable deduction, no one reacted. Instead, people’s faces became even more serious, and Ha-jin, trying to endure the motion sickness in the shaking car, simply pressed his forehead.
“So, what you’re saying, Park Chun-beom, is that the road is collapsing… is that it?”
Eden, who had stopped the rattling car in the center lane, asked through gritted teeth.
“Ah, yes. It’s like that in the city, if not in the countryside. Actually, the road has held up for a long time considering. It’s already been nine days since this mess started.”
“Why are you telling us this now?”
“Huh?”
“We went through all that trouble to get the car, and now you’re saying it’s difficult to move by road?”
“Oh, that’s not it… I just thought of it late….”
At Eden’s sudden rebuke, the air in the car turned cold. It had only been 20 minutes since they boarded the car with the hope of heading to Dragon Cloud City. An ominous premonition was gradually looming over everyone’s heads. The atmosphere couldn’t have been more bleak.
Then, Byeol, with an angry face, wiggled his butt and slapped Eden’s shoulder! It was quite fierce.
“Uncle! Why are you taking it out on Chun-beom!!”
“Haa— Jeong Byeol, are you really not going to fix your habit of hitting people?”
“Uh… Byeol… Uncle’s name isn’t Chun-beom, it’s Park Chun-beom….”
It was a total mess. Ha-jin, with a complicated expression, washed his face with his hands and looked over the road. Three or four zombies were loitering and crossing over to this side. Unless they were planning to get out of the car and have a city brawl, they had to lower the decibel level of their voices.
“Everyone be quiet. Zombies are coming.”
Ha-jin warned in a reproachful voice. The lips that had been adding words shut at the same time.
A zombie with an abnormally twisted shoulder, a zombie wearing a school uniform, and a zombie with exposed ribs passed by the car.
“Krrr… Clack! Clack!”
The faces of the zombies passing by, gnashing their teeth as if chewing the air, were strangely similar to each other.
“They must have been a family.”
“Shh.”
Mi-so, who had stopped Byeol’s whisper, raised her head and looked out the window. Except for the zombies that had just passed, there were no other Aberrants on the road.
Eden started the car again. Groans echoed in the car once more, but he stubbornly kept rolling the tires.
“I don’t think we can go any further.”
But even without the collapsed road and the flood, the car could no longer move forward. In front of the tollgate, large cargo trucks and express buses were lined up horizontally like a huge barrier.
The faces and arms of zombies popped out through the broken windows. They were living corpses who had been given another life while tied to their seatbelts.
Ha-jin swallowed his bitter saliva in frustration. As Jeong Tae-geon had said, he had barely managed to steal the vehicle after all that trouble, but it seemed like it would be in vain without even crossing the tollgate. Perhaps the tires had finally broken down due to the cracked road, as the car body felt tilted to one side.
“It’s unfair! It’s a chance we got with so much difficulty!”
Mi-so cried out.
Now, they really had no choice but to face it head-on. As if everyone was thinking the same thing, the group, taking out their food, filled their stomachs with a determined look. After completing all the preparations, Eden turned around and recited the scenario.
“According to the navigation, although it’s only the shortest route, we can assume that it’s 120km from here to Dragon Cloud City. It’s a distance that would take about 70 hours of continuous walking.”
Of course, if you consider the variables of traversing natural terrain rather than just flat land, the time could easily double.
“If we limit nighttime travel, it’s a schedule that will take at least ten days, and we can’t ignore the special circumstances of zombie appearances. At the very least, it could take more than 20 days to reach the entrance of Dragon Cloud City. That’s only if we don’t get lost, and if we have adequate rest, food, and water.”
People began to sigh one by one at the increasing number of difficult conditions. Eden didn’t drag it out any longer and bluntly spat out the conclusion.
“Even considering various hardships, it will take about a month to a month and a half to reach each of your target destinations. Does everyone understand?”
Ha-jin’s face turned pale. He had expected it to be far, but he didn’t expect that moving from the lower regions to the metropolitan area would take this long, as if he were crossing the continent.
A month and a half. It was a far too long and distant time to go see Jun-seok. He had only thought of about two weeks at most, so his mind was in chaos.
“Can’t we go faster? Wouldn’t it be possible in 3 weeks if we just move quickly?”
When Ha-jin asked pleadingly, Eden shook his head mercilessly.
“Safety is the priority, even if it’s slow. We’ll stop moving at night, and we’ll stop even if it rains. If the temperature rises, we’ll refrain from moving during the day. If we push ourselves too hard, there will only be more injuries and more delays. You’d better listen to me.”
“…….”
“You can’t see your family or anyone else unless you come back alive, right?”
Park Chun-beom and Mi-so, who wanted to see their families as soon as possible, couldn’t add any more. There was no particularly good solution, and there were no errors or loopholes in Eden’s scenario.
“…Okay. Then let me just check the navigation one more time.”
Similarly, Ha-jin, who couldn’t refute Eden’s words, touched the wide display. Even while scanning the winding roads, terrain, and mountain locations with his eyes, despair washed over his mind like a tsunami.
Can Jun-seok really endure that long?
While Ha-jin memorized the map, people took out hats or fans to help them endure the scorching midday heat.
“Let’s check the radio channels one last time.”
Chzz─ Chzz— Eden adjusted the channel button. Unfortunately, the only sound that could be heard was the radio signal that heated the ears noisily.
The group, who had entered the Namsangwon tollgate empty-handed and entered the highway, moved their feet endlessly according to Eden’s signal.
Because the zombies popping out sporadically from the cars parked on the highway were quite threatening, Eden led the people up and down the hill next to the highway.
Although it was a low mountain at the level of a hill, it was not easy to make one’s way through a mountain path that had never been touched by people. Stamina was rapidly depleted while crossing the bare hills.
People who had been diligently moving their feet without a moment’s rest began to fall behind one by one. With the added weight of the luggage, their bodies felt like they weighed a ton. The hot sun was beating down on the top of their heads.
Eventually, it was only after Park Chun-beom collapsed on the rough dirt floor that Eden suggested a break.
“Let’s take a break.”
When they turned off the side of the hill, a desolate brown field was revealed. Across from the field was a small village with a mix of blue, green, and red roofs.
The village was eerily quiet. The only sign of life was the flapping of summer migratory birds aimlessly roaming the sky.
Ha-jin, looking for a place to escape the heat, found a container right above the stream, labeled ‘Willow Mountain Village Management Office.’ He stood on tiptoe and looked inside the window. The office was empty except for a steel desk, a mini-refrigerator, and scattered documents.