By Zephyria 
[Chun-beom told me. There’s a prototype radio on the 5th floor. That’s the Tune we’ve been looking for. With that radio, you can contact us anytime.]
Jeffrey, having finished his explanation nonchalantly, held out a torn piece of paper.
[I wrote down the number, so take this too. Don’t think of it as a radio; just think of it as a phone. What are you doing? My arm’s gonna fall off. Hurry up and take it.]
Ha-jin, with a bewildered look, reached out his palm, then suddenly realized and put his hand inside his shirt. He wrapped his hand in the hem of his shirt and stretched out his arm, pulling the bottom of the T-shirt way down.
Jeffrey’s forehead furrowed menacingly as he watched.
[The card is clean, okay? Just in case, I only put it inside my underwear when I slept last night!]
[Still feels icky.]
[Huh…! You’d fondle Eden’s penis just fine.]
[That’s sexual harassment, you know?]
[Fine. I give up, I give up.]
As if he couldn’t help it, he directly stuffed the card and paper into Ha-jin’s pocket and earnestly urged him.
[Don’t ever lose it. Whenever it is, I’ll keep waiting for your call, so please survive and contact us again.]
Ha-jin, who had been stretching out his arm while pulling down his shirt, awkwardly lowered his arm. Ironically, it felt like tears were about to burst out now.
[Thank you for thinking of me.]
[…Yeah. Take care, and find your Hyung.]
[Yes.]
Ha-jin hurriedly turned around and walked towards the exit to hide his unsightly, distorted face. As if awakened by the small commotion, the man who had been dozing off against the fence was now standing guard at the back gate in a stiff posture.
“Please open the gate.”
The soldier unlocked the latch at Ha-jin’s request, giving him a warning.
“If your identity can’t be verified, it will be difficult to re-enter.”
The stiffly uttered words felt like a death sentence, and Ha-jin smacked his lips bitterly.
“Take care.”
It was the moment he bowed his head and stepped out of the back gate.
[Do Ha-jin!]
A firm force grabbed his arm again. When he turned around, Jeffrey was there, biting his lip as if he were about to cry any second.
[…I’m sorry. For sending you off alone.]
“…….”
[I’ll take Eden safely, so don’t worry.]
Jeffrey’s Adam’s apple bobbed. Ha-jin, who had been silently watching him, opened his arms and hugged him tightly. As soon as he patted his back, sobs burst out.
Ha-jin felt his shoulder getting wet and looked far away at the back door of the hangar. Jeffrey’s wails continued for quite a while. When there was no sign of it stopping, Ha-jin, after a moment of hesitation, first pulled away from the embrace.
[Jeffrey.]
[Heuh… Uh, huh?]
[I’ll tell you what you were curious about, so stop crying.]
Jeffrey twitched his reddened nose. Doubt was etched in his bloodshot eyes. Ha-jin playfully nudged his arm, as if telling him to remember.
[You kept asking about the Magic trick. I said I’d tell you when we parted ways.]
He was referring to the Magic trick he had performed for Jeffrey, who was sitting in the audience on the day of the Magic show.
After blinking blankly for a while, a belated sigh escaped from Jeffrey’s mouth. Ah….
‘Ha-jin! You kept it a secret again. When are you gonna tell me about the arm trick?’
‘I’ll really tell you next time.’
‘When is next time?’
‘Hmm… When Jeffrey and I part ways?’
As he slowly recalled the past memories, his face contorted again as if he would burst into tears again. Surprised by the unexpected reaction, Ha-jin grabbed his thick arm in a fluster.
[Why, what’s wrong? You said you wanted to know the secret.]
[No.]
[Huh?]
[You said you’d tell me when we part ways! We’re going to meet again, so there’s no need to tell me now!]
Jeffrey, who had been pestering Ha-jin all the time, was horrified and stepped back when Ha-jin tried to reveal the secret of the Magic.
“Heuh….”
In the end, Ha-jin reluctantly nodded. Anyway, it was a relief that he stopped crying.
[Okay. Anyway… thank you, Jeffrey.]
This time, Jeffrey hugged Ha-jin tightly. Even as the farewell continued for a long time, Ha-jin’s gaze was constantly directed towards the back door of the hangar.
Until a faint light permeated the dark blue sky, and until he left the Maintenance Depot and the fence was no longer in sight, Eden did not show up in the end.
As if trying to draw his face engraved on his fingertips, Ha-jin stroked his index finger over his thigh. He felt a little ridiculous, feeling pathetic for constantly looking back, just in case.
❖ ❖ ❖
@Public Funds
Ha-jin crunched on a chocolate bar, leaning against an old tree. The long chocolate bar was a snack carefully hidden deep in his backpack, inside a pile of ropes. He couldn’t know when or who had put it there, but he vaguely guessed that it was probably Eden’s doing.
Every time he took a bite of the chocolate bar, he imagined Eden secretly stealing supplies from the military personnel, and a smile leaked out around his mouth.
Neither crying nor giggling.
“Am I finally crazy….”
Every time the melted chocolate moistened his tongue, his temples throbbed. Ha-jin slowly stopped smiling and munched on the last piece of the snack. He fiddled with the silver brooch in his pocket for mental stability, then stared intently at Chun-beom’s face engraved on his Employee ID card this time.
“Our Chun-beom looks great in photos. It would have been much prettier if he had smiled a little brighter.”
He had been talking to himself quite a bit these past few days. Ha-jin, muttering like an old man, crumpled the empty chocolate bar wrapper. The dirt floor he was sitting on was damp, but he didn’t have the courage to get up again.
A faint Zombie howl was heard from somewhere. Apart from fear, his eyes kept closing due to fatigue.
It had already been three days since he left the Maintenance Depot. The closer he got to his destination, the more Zombies swarmed around, and he couldn’t find a single survivor.
Ha-jin closed his eyes and slowly recalled the past days in his mind.
On the first day of his solo journey, he had to climb a tedious mountain path to avoid survivors who were recklessly trying to steal his luggage. As it turned out, he had faithfully followed Eden’s advice to stick to the forest path.
As night fell, he curled up in a rest area in the middle of the mountain and got some much-needed sleep. But at dawn the next day, the moment he opened his eyelids early, sensing a gaze from somewhere.
‘…Aaaargh!’
Ha-jin immediately made eye contact with cloudy eyes. The feeling of encountering a strange old man staring down at him like a ghost….
He screamed so loudly that he thought he would faint, and the old man picked up an axe that had fallen at his feet, complaining that he was being too loud. He hurriedly blocked the attack with his bag and quickly left the scene. Since then, he had been wasting time hiding like a glass fish whenever he saw even a strand of human hair.
Ha-jin was not making much progress, as if it were all a lie that he had been loudly proclaiming that he had to go meet his Hyung quickly.
On the second day, his calf bled after rolling down a hill. It was only natural that Eden’s soft touch, comforting his wound, came to mind. He wondered if he should shed some tears as an excuse, but he just got angry at his pathetic self.
“Ugh, I’m tired….”
One day and two days spent mindlessly, and today, the third day. Ha-jin was rubbing his arms, which were aching with muscle pain. Even though he was passing through a small mountain that was hardly worth calling a mountain, his legs felt like lead.
He was exhausted, both physically and mentally, even before arriving at Neverland. Sometimes, he completely forgot what he was doing here.
Only when the Zombie’s howl gradually got closer did Ha-jin slowly get up from his seat.
How far had he walked? He stopped in his tracks because he was bothered by the waterproof bandage on his calf that was half-fallen off.
A faint voice was heard from somewhere.
Maa… Um…ma….
His surprised body froze. It was the first sign of life he had felt since encountering the crazy Grandfather.
He quickly hid behind a tree and scanned the vicinity, but all he could see were green trees, squirrels running between them, and pine cones scattered on the ground.
‘Who is it?’
Listening carefully to the sound, his head slowly turned back. As he peeked out with only his face showing while hiding his body behind the tree, something immediately caught his eye.
A child?
Was she only as tall as Byeol? A girl with long hair was standing in the middle of the forest path without fear, calling out for her mother.
Mother…. Um…ma….
Ha-jin quickly scanned the child’s appearance with his eyes. Her scarlet shorts and T-shirt with a bear character were covered in what looked like blood or vomit.
A child wandering alone, abandoned in this harsh city. Byeol, who had come into his arms like an angel, came to mind. His ribs ached as if wind had entered his hole-filled heart.
If left alone, she would surely become a target for crazy people or prey for Zombies. Having encountered a lost child, it was only right as an adult to at least move her to a safe place.
Without hesitation, Ha-jin immediately turned around and ran towards the child. Even when she saw him running, the child did not run away and stood there as if nailed to the spot.
It was the moment when there were less than five steps left. The child’s head, which had been lowered, slowly lifted up.
“…….”
Suddenly, a strange sensation, whether it was déjà vu or a sense of unease, ran down his spine. Ha-jin took a sharp breath and stopped in his tracks. As he quickly stopped, a cloud of dust rose from under his feet, and dead leaves wrapped around his ankles.
The wind, weeping like a sob, filled the silence.
“…Baby…?”
Ha-jin muttered as if he couldn’t believe it.
The clear traces of dried blood under her nose, the cloudy pupils blurred as if enveloped in the dawn mist, the cartilage-exposed fingers, and the excessively bent and twisted ankle.
This was definitely….
“Uh… Ma….”
The Zombie’s lips slowly tore open, and a bizarre voice flowed out from the gap. It was a voice like scratching a blackboard with an awl. Gnats quickly stuck to the child’s wide-open eyeballs like dots.
“…!”
Ha-jin froze.
It was an emotion that could not be described as just chilling. Contrary to calling out for her mother sadly, there was no significant change in expression on the child’s half-collapsed face.
“You….”
The shock, comparable to when he first witnessed the existence of Zombies, quickly consumed his reason. This feeling, as if his mind was shattered into pieces and even his soul was torn apart in the end….
Before he could even reassemble his thoughts, the Zombie bared its teeth and lunged at him, as if it had been waiting.
“Kiiieeeek─!”
Ha-jin reflexively rolled his body to avoid the Zombie that was attacking. He quickly fumbled through the pocket of the backpack that had fallen off his shoulder, and a stone axe made of rope caught his fingertips.
“Kehk! Keaek!”
The Zombie, whose body was slammed into the ground, reached out its arms, struggling with its twisted legs. Sharp fingernails grazed Ha-jin’s toes and scratched the ground. Shivers ran down the back of his neck at the desperate gesture of crawling towards him.
Um…ma!
It was definitely a hallucination. Ha-jin, in a panic, swung his hand wildly.
Mom! Mom! Mom…!
The raised stone axe struck the top of the Zombie’s head. Thwack…!
“Kieek…!”
Thwack! Thwack! He knelt on the ground and repeatedly struck the Zombie’s head until its fragile skull was completely crushed. Thick blood splattered everywhere, and the Zombie’s hair clumped together like rice cakes.
“Huk… Huek….”
The Zombie’s body, which had been wriggling like an earthworm, was now limp. Ha-jin, belatedly regaining his senses, dropped the weapon he had been gripping so tightly that it hurt.
Red blood was smeared all over his face, neck, and the back of his hands.
“Ugh…!”
The acrid smell of blood made him want to vomit. He raised his trembling hand and roughly wiped the blood from his eyes. Beyond his vision, which was turning red, he saw the Zombie’s body, its head buried in the ground.
“Haa… Haa….”
She definitely spoke.
She called out for her mother with her mouth torn wide open, and she stood there motionless until he approached.
Was it a hallucination? Or am I finally crazy?
He wished everything was a terrible nightmare, but the disgusting stench sticking to his nasal membranes and the nauseating smell of blood were definitely real sensations.
Doo-doo-doo─ Doo-doo-doo─
Then, a familiar noise was heard overhead. Ha-jin’s eyelids, which had been staring blankly at the ground, suddenly widened. At the same time, he felt blood circulating throughout his body through his veins.
As if possessed, Ha-jin slowly raised his head towards the sky.
A helicopter was flying through the air. A long tail and four propellers spinning fiercely, a mottled, dark green exterior. It was definitely the last Transport plane of Blue Works that he had seen at the Maintenance Depot.
Doo-doo-doo─ The noise that had been deafening his ears faded into the distance, and Ha-jin remained kneeling in the same spot until the tail of the helicopter was no longer visible.
His shoulders were stiff because he had tilted his head back so much. Just as his twisted ankle ached and electricity ran up his leg, Ha-jin’s lips slowly parted.
“Jeong Tae-geon….”
He left. The moment he recognized that fact, a silent laugh leaked out around his mouth. The memory of the battle that had just taken place evaporated like a lie, and his mind began to fill with Eden’s face.
Ha-jin covered his blood-smeared face with his hands and took a deep breath. A warm warmth spread across his chest along with a sense of relief.
He got away safely.
Apart from the laughter, his vision blurred and his eyes burned as if they had been burned by fire.
It was tears that he had never shed even when he was rolling down the hill, when he was sleeping alone on the cold floor, or when his mouth was dry and he was gagging.
He was the one who wanted him to escape this hellish land and go to a safe place, but he didn’t want to do the unsightly thing of feeling overwhelmed by a life without Jeong Tae-geon now.
‘Do Ha-jin will be able to survive on his own without me.’
Ha-jin desperately tried to calm his throat, which was tightening painfully as if being squeezed. His ears were noisy with his rapidly beating heart and rough breathing. A ringing filled his head, and his vision was dark.
Because of that, he didn’t even notice that someone was approaching him.
“…Tsk.”
Between his trembling breaths, the sound of someone clicking their tongue was slowly mixed in.
“Do Ha-jin.”
It was strange. A voice that shouldn’t be heard was lingering around his ears like a hallucination, and the tips of shoes that shouldn’t be seen were captured in his vision. The hand that had been covering his face fell down, and his damp gaze, which had been directed at the ground, lifted up.
As soon as their eyes met, he smiled mischievously, as if he had been waiting.
“Why did you stop crying?”
Eden, who was firmly trampling on the Zombie’s back, asked with his head tilted.
End of Part 1