By Zephyria 
Was it because Ha-jin’s earnest expression softened her heart? The woman, who had been blinking in confusion, slowly opened her mouth.
“…You really came to find someone?”
At her question, Ha-jin nodded desperately. A tear that had been clinging to his lower eyelid dripped down, but he didn’t care and roughly wiped it away with the back of his hand.
“Yes, my brother was working here as a Cast Member…”
The rain gradually thinned. The woman and the man, who were standing blankly in the rain without umbrellas, exchanged meaningful glances once more. Ha-jin felt a sense of urgency and continued to speak.
“He’s a man, his face is a bit round, and his eyebrows are very thick. He’s about 178cm tall, and his voice has a bit of a cute tone… Oh, his hairstyle is a bit of a bowl cut, and he dyed it light brown.”
He even blurted out that his fourth finger was thicker than his thumb without hesitation, unable to contain his excitement, and gasped for breath.
As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of rain filled the distant void again.
The woman and the man were silent for a while. Just as he was overcome with anxiety again because no expected reaction came, the woman scratched her cheek with a troubled expression.
“I’m sorry, but if that’s the reason, we can’t let you in any further.”
Ha-jin’s eyelids flew open at the unexpected answer.
“What do you mean?”
In an instant, an ominous premonition slithered up like a snake, quickly scanning his entire body. Instead of the hesitant woman, this time the man opened his lips in a subdued voice.
“Because there isn’t a single living person inside.”
“……”
“So, you should just give up and go back.”
He felt as if all the blood had drained from his body in an instant. His eyes, which had been shining with hope, lost their original color and turned dull. The hand that had been clenched in tension relaxed.
The woman looked gloomily at Ha-jin, who was standing blankly, at a loss for words, before turning the front wheel. The man who had dropped the bombshell had already fled the scene, and the woman soon followed him, driving her motorcycle into the broken ticket booth and disappearing.
While Ha-jin was frozen, unable to even breathe properly, Eden took out the Pie he had hidden inside the center and firmly grabbed his arm, which was in shock. Ha-jin, who had been staring blankly at the place where the man and woman had disappeared, blinked again at the sensation of something wet licking his calves.
“Let’s go inside ourselves before it gets too late.”
He shook the unresponsive Ha-jin and said again.
“The rain is getting lighter. It’s dangerous if we delay any longer here.”
After being urged several times, his pale face finally turned to Eden.
“…Jeong Tae-geon, if there really aren’t any survivors inside, as those people said…”
“Now that we’ve come this far, we have to see it with our own eyes. That’s the only way Do Ha-jin will be satisfied.”
He said calmly, leading Ha-jin relentlessly into the ticket booth, and added.
“Who knows? Maybe those guys are telling a bad lie because of food problems.”
Even as he was being dragged by Eden, Ha-jin repeatedly recalled the woman’s rapidly shaking pupils and the man’s face, which was filled with embarrassment. Those were definitely not the faces of people telling lies.
However, as Eden said, he wouldn’t know until he went inside himself. Ha-jin struggled to regain his shattered and fragmented mind, dragging his increasingly heavy feet after him.
The events that had just taken place felt so dreamlike that he felt as if he were walking through a delusion.
‘Because there isn’t a single living person inside.’
The man’s words rang in his ears like tinnitus. He couldn’t say anything for sure until he saw it with his own eyes, but for some reason, his chest kept tightening with pressure. Tears streamed down his cheeks as if it were natural.
Ha-jin roughly wiped his face with his palm, lest Eden see him.
“You said the last place he was hiding was the souvenir shop in front of Twister. Let’s go there first.”
With those words, Eden continued to grab and lead Ha-jin, avoiding the corpses scattered everywhere. Had they come halfway? Ha-jin, who had been walking as if running to keep up with Eden’s pace, belatedly took in the scenery of the ruined amusement park.
The Ferris wheel and teacup-shaped merry-go-round that had stopped long ago, the bumper cars with peeling paint, and the corpse of the clerk slumped over the popcorn shop counter…
The amusement park, which was once filled with cute theme songs and children’s laughter, was now filled only with the pattering sound of rain and the mournful sound of crows.
His steps naturally stopped as he passed the shooting game area where a blood-stained stroller was parked. Ha-jin unknowingly rolled his eyes to find the navy uniform among the mountains of corpses. Relieved that Jun-seok wasn’t there, he suddenly bent over, feeling a surge of nausea rising from within.
“Do Ha-jin, are you okay?”
“Ugh…!”
Eden quickly patted Ha-jin’s back and looked around. According to the map he had picked up at the information center, they were now in the middle of the amusement park. They seemed to have walked quite a bit, but they still had a long way to go.
Meanwhile, Ha-jin’s condition was not good. He had been unable to hide his anxiety since he left the bathhouse, and from the moment he heard that there were no survivors left here, his mentality was collapsing in real time.
Eden patted Ha-jin’s back, who was showing a rapid decline in physical strength and abnormal reactions, and seriously pondered. The dark clouds were slowly receding. The rain would stop soon, and if that happened, staying inside Neverland with bare bodies would be no different from suicide.
Whether to go further inside or retreat.
Just as Eden, who was at a crossroads of choice, was quickly pondering to make a realistic decision, two red motorcycles could be seen in the distance rushing towards them. Ha-jin, who had been spitting thin saliva on the floor in a daze, also struggled to raise his head at the familiar noise.
The motorcycles stopped in front of them again as if it were natural. Unlike before, when they were wearing hats pulled down low, the man and woman were now showing their bare faces.
The woman, who had swept her soaking wet bangs back, shouted nervously.
“Are you crazy and want to die?! I told you not to come in here!”
The man also slammed the handlebars as if to support the woman’s words, and raged.
“I clearly told you there were no survivors, why don’t you listen?”
Eden, who had been frowning at the somewhat sudden reaction, turned to look at Ha-jin, who was standing with a confused face.
“Do Ha-jin, it looks like the rain will stop soon, would you like to go further inside? Or would you like to check only up to here today?”
He was willing to follow Ha-jin’s decision, whatever it may be. He added.
“Even if we go back like this, we can always come back. So, there’s nothing to worry about.”
Then the woman’s sharp voice cut between them.
“Hey, mister. Do you think what I said earlier was a lie? If you’re crazy and want to die, I won’t stop you, but I guarantee there isn’t a single person staying in Neverland.”
“……”
“Even if we kill Zombies, there are still tens of thousands of them walking around in this damn Neverland. Do you understand what I’m saying? This is not a place where humans can stay!”
Looking at Ha-jin’s shaking pupils, the woman continued as if spitting out her pain.
“You’re not the only one who came to save your family. My brother was also a Cast Member here.”
The following words were of a completely unexpected kind. Surprise flashed across Ha-jin’s eyes, which had been black and dead like a fool.
“What did you say?”
“There were a few part-timers who escaped with me while saving my brother at the time. I haven’t seen a single survivor here since that day. This is real. Unless we touch it, the food in the restaurant never decreases.”
“……”
“I won’t stop you if you really need to see it with your own eyes, but I wanted to tell you that there are at least other options.”
After letting out a sigh, the woman explained why she had chased after them belatedly.
“I’ll take you to where my brother is. If you want to check if your family was among the survivors who escaped together, follow me without saying a word.”
Then Eden blocked Ha-jin and frowned.
“How can we believe those words now?”
The woman’s face turned red as if she was dumbfounded, perhaps because it was an unexpected question.
“Hey, mister. Do you think I’m going to lie in this situation?”
“It seems like you’ve been lying since a while ago.”
“What?”
“The fake guns in your bags.”
The man and woman’s eyes widened at the sudden remark.
“I don’t know where you picked up those cheap toys, but you should throw them away and carry real weapons if possible.”
The barrels of the guns they were carrying had orange stripes on them, which was a distinction established by law in the United States to identify fake guns. There was no way Eden, who made weapons his profession, wouldn’t recognize counterfeits.
The faces of the man and woman who had been caught with fake guns turned bright red.
“This is just for intimidation! Even if they were real, we have no reason to shoot innocent people!”
“Damn it, can you just ignore someone who came to help you like this?”
Ha-jin, who had been listening to their argument in silence, pulled on Eden’s arm.
“Jeong Tae-geon, I don’t think these people are lying…”
At that moment, bright sunlight shone on Ha-jin’s face. His mouth closed as his vision suddenly brightened. Ttuk, tuduk…. Ha-jin swallowed nervously, confirming that the rain, which had been falling like dew, had finally stopped.
The man and woman, who had been venting their anger, looked up at the clear sky and sighed at the same time.