By Zephyria 
It seemed the rose festival had drawn a large crowd, as the roads leading to Neverland’s entrance and the parking lot were packed with vehicles that hadn’t yet left. However, there was no sign of people.
The sky was filled with dark clouds, and the drizzling rain made the atmosphere more desolate and eerie than ever.
They passed the silently abandoned Parking Lot 1 in the rain and continued up the hill for a while. Eden affectionately wrapped his arm around Ha-jin’s shoulder, who had become noticeably quiet, and they walked in step. After about 15 minutes, Parking Lot 2 finally came into view.
Parking Lot 2, connected to the valet parking area, was markedly different from the one they had passed earlier. Cars were haphazardly entangled, their front ends smashed in, and their doors were wide open. The concrete floor was covered in bloodstains, a testament to a desperate struggle.
“Ugh…”
Ha-jin quickly covered his mouth, overwhelmed by the sour, repulsive stench that pierced his nose. Bodies that had failed to turn into Zombies were scattered like landmines, most of them with flesh melted away like water, making them unrecognizable.
He had encountered countless corpses and grotesque Zombies on his way here, but witnessing the shadow of death was still unfamiliar. He could become somewhat indifferent out of necessity, but the sight of horribly mutilated bodies always evoked extreme fear and sorrow.
Especially now that he had arrived at Neverland, where Jun-seok might be, his heart was filled with indescribable despair. It was obvious that the situation inside the amusement park would be just as terrible.
It was a reality that offered no hope. Really, it seemed impossible for anyone to survive here.
Just as he was about to fall into the abyss of despair, Pie, noticing Ha-jin’s distress, desperately began to lick his calf. Ha-jin, struggling to regain his senses from the wet licking, leaned his exhausted body against the trunk of a black mid-size car. Drip, drip… Cold rain fell on the back of his hand resting on the car.
As he tried to calm his rapid breathing, a foul odor stung his nose once again. He tried to breathe through his mouth, but it only brought on more retching.
Worried about Eden, who was even more sensitive to smells than he was, Ha-jin cautiously raised his head. Sure enough, Eden’s complexion was as pale as if he had been covered in flour.
“Jeong Tae-geon, are you alright?”
“Um…”
He couldn’t bring himself to say he was okay, even as a polite lie. This time, Ha-jin led the struggling Eden towards the ticket booth. Trying to navigate the path, avoiding the corpses piled on the ground and those slumped over the hoods of cars, made every muscle in his body tense up.
Even though he knew they were dead and couldn’t move, he felt as if the corpses would suddenly rise up and bite his neck. He didn’t let his guard down, soothing Pie and Eden as he advanced towards the ticket booth.
Meanwhile, negative assumptions slowly crept into his mind like dark clouds covering the sky.
‘What if Jun-seok isn’t here? What do I do then?’
Just then, Pie stopped in his tracks and flattened himself to the ground. Hearing the faint engine sound cutting through the rain, Eden and Ha-jin quickly crouched down.
They stood close to the wall of the information center, right in front of the ticket booth, and looked around cautiously. Hiding under the eaves, they listened intently, and the sound of a motorcycle idling became clear. Ha-jin glanced at Eden.
“Do you hear it?”
“Shh.”
Eden put a finger to his lips and immediately gripped his axe in his hand. Ha-jin followed Eden’s lead, adjusting his pliers and feeling the sweat and rain making his palms slippery.
Vroom— Vroom—
The sound was getting closer.
The biker gang they had encountered as soon as they entered Dragon Cloud City came to mind, making him uneasy. At the same time, the fact that there were people in Neverland, which had died and turned as black as a monochrome city, filled him with a strange sense of elation.
He felt somewhat pathetic for clinging to even a sliver of hope in a situation where anything could happen, but once his emotions were stirred, his heart raced uncontrollably.
There are survivors here. That meant Jun-seok might still be in Neverland.
Ha-jin, tightening his grip on the pliers, wore a determined expression. Suddenly, two red motorcycles sped through the rain and stopped right in front of them.
Eden pushed the growling Pie into the information center and pulled the frozen Ha-jin close to him.
Swish—
A tense standoff ensued in the rain. The unidentified men and women on the motorcycles, wearing their hats pulled low, silently stared at Ha-jin and Eden.
“……”
“……”
However, the color and model of the bikes looked familiar. It wasn’t just him who felt a sense of déjà vu; Eden was also scanning them with a suspicious expression.
‘Red…’
The motorcycles in front of them were the exact same model and color as the ones the delinquent bikers used to ride. Ha-jin recalled the two men who had been found in the roadside bushes after running away from Eden’s attack. They were dead, their motorcycles gone and their helmets broken.
A world where villains are eliminated by villains. And this was a place where such a repetition of history wouldn’t be strange at all.
Eden, seemingly recalling the same memory, gripped his axe in a way that was far from ordinary. If these were the ones who had stolen the motorcycles, it was obvious that they wouldn’t be pushovers.
The silence was soon broken.
“Who are you?”
A calm but firm female voice addressed Eden and Ha-jin. Ha-jin met the eyes of the short-haired woman wearing a green hat pulled low. Although her face was obscured by the hat, she had sharp, cat-like eyes and a pointed chin.
Before he could answer, the man in the white hat sternly warned.
“Get lost. This is our territory.”
He, too, had sharp eyes that were narrowed, just like the woman.
‘Are they siblings?’
Ha-jin stared at the faces of the two similar-looking men and women before slowly lowering the pliers he had raised. It was a kind of gesture of surrender, indicating that he didn’t want to use force. Eden could easily crush these people in front of him like flies, but Ha-jin didn’t think he could witness his killing again.
He opened his mouth first to persuade the men and women who were sending hostile glances.
“We came to find someone.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the woman’s face contorted.
“What?”
Following the woman’s question, the man belatedly echoed.
“Someone?”
“Yes, someone.”
At his firm reply, the woman turned to the man and chuckled.
“What’s he saying?”
“He said he came to find someone.”
“Right? I thought I misheard.”
After mocking Ha-jin for a while as if they were exchanging jokes, the two turned back to him.
“Stop with the lame excuses and just be honest. There’s only one thing people who come here are after.”
The woman pulled her damp hat down again and leaned her upper body close to the bike’s screen. Her dry hand caressed the gun-shaped handle protruding from the zipper of the messenger bag that crossed her chest diagonally. It was clear that she had threatened people more than once or twice.
However, what caught Ha-jin’s attention was something else entirely. It was the fact that the woman had been dealing with Zombies here for quite some time.
Just as he threw the pliers to the ground and took a step closer to them, the man, who had been stroking his rifle like the woman, opened his mouth with a frustrated expression.
“Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? This is our territory, so stop dawdling and get lost. Unless you want to be shot.”
The fact that they were acting so sensitively was proof that there was still a large amount of food in Neverland, enough to warrant guarding against looters. And where there was food, the chances of survival were bound to increase.
Ha-jin found a glimmer of hope in the man’s harsh words and asked in a trembling voice.
“What about other survivors?”
“What?”
“My brother’s name is Do Jun-seok, and he’s twenty-seven years old.”
“……”
“The person I came to find is my brother. He worked here as a Cast Member.”
Ha-jin’s voice grew louder, worried that it might be drowned out by the rain. Moments later, bewildered gazes followed his clearly agitated face.
The woman, who had been ignoring and mocking his words all along, suddenly wore an ambiguous expression.
“The last time I contacted him, he said he was hiding in the souvenir shop in front of the Twister ride. Have you been there? Is there a place where survivors gather?”
At the voice filled with desperation, the woman and man finally clamped their mouths shut.
After turning their heads to exchange glances, the two turned back to the front. Ha-jin was trembling his chin and desperately trying to hold back his tears.