🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter: 19
“How long will it take?”
“About two hours to reach the crossroads.”
“Too late.”
Caliph’s expression hardened as he looked up at the dim sky, already darkening beneath the sunset.
“There’s a small settlement about twenty-five miles from the crossroads. We can get there in roughly forty minutes.”
The time was 6:42 p.m. It wasn’t supposed to be dark yet, but the overcast sky had already plunged the surroundings into gloom. Three hours to the settlement. Spending the night out on the road was never a good idea.
But there was no other option. As Edwin had said, turning back was the best choice.
“Let’s go.”
When Caliph nodded, Edwin folded up the map. They had to return as quickly as possible before it got any darker.
But at that moment, a sudden gust of wind violently snatched the map from Edwin’s fingertips.
“Whoa! What kind of wind is this?!”
Edwin barely managed to grab the edge of the map and let out a relieved sigh as he complained. With the navigation system already dead, the map was nothing short of a lifeline.
The wind’s getting stronger…
Afraid the map might be torn away again, Edwin hurriedly crumpled it and shoved it into his coat, then scanned the surroundings with a tense expression. Something about the air felt wrong.
Then, from behind them, Jigu’s astonished voice rang out.
“Huh! A tornado!”
Still going on about tornadoes. Sure enough, his mental age really wasn’t any different from Ryan’s.
Swallowing his irritation, Edwin turned around to warn Jigu—to tell him to take things more seriously.
But Edwin’s mouth fell wide open before he could finish his sentence.
“Jigu, don’t step on things like th— huh?!”
“Mm… you really can’t step on that, Eddie.”
A massive tornado, connecting earth and sky, was raging at the far end of the road they were supposed to take.
At first glance, it looked as though the tornado was standing still somewhere far away. But in reality, it was moving at tremendous speed. That was how enormous it was.
“Damn it…”
Edwin’s face drained of color. In the face of a colossal natural disaster, humans, zombies—even Sentinels—were nothing more than insignificant creatures.
A dead end ahead. A tornado behind.
A despairing silence settled over the group.
Then, Jigu’s urgent shout cut through the heavy stillness.
“Wait! Here! There’s a road here!”
Jigu had already pushed his way into the cornfield beside the road. Grunting, he lifted something up—it was an old sign, rusted and corroded by time.
The sign had been deliberately scratched and gouged with something sharp, making the letters hard to read. Still, it was clear that there was some kind of settlement nearby.
The rust, red as dried blood, felt ominous—but they weren’t in a position to be picky.
Spotting the unpaved road hidden between the corn stalks, the group scrambled back into the truck.
“Gyaaah! The car’s flyinggg!”
Vroom—THUD!
Jigu screamed as the truck briefly lifted into the air before slamming him back down onto the seat.
The car was flying.
Well—strictly speaking, not yet. It was just bouncing violently as it sped along the uneven dirt road.
But at this rate, it might actually take off soon.
Checking the rearview mirror, Edwin muttered with a pale face.
Vroom—CRASH!
The truck hit a small mound of dirt, soared into the air, then slammed back down hard.
A weak, trembling groan slipped from Jigu’s lips. Clutching his pounding chest, he squinted and looked back.
The tornado had grown even larger, swallowing everything in its path from afar—though at the moment, that mostly meant cornfields.
Then—CRACK!
The windshield shattered with a deafening sound. Startled, Edwin yanked the steering wheel.
“W-What is that? Hail?!”
Something pale and fist-sized was embedded in the broken windshield. Jigu narrowed his eyes, staring at it—then his face turned ghostly white.
“AAAH! Isn’t that a hand?!”
At the same time, Edwin realized what it was and screamed in horror.
A hand? Why is a hand flying at us?
The question echoed in Jigu’s mind. With a tornado raging behind them, why would a severed hand come flying through the air?
His gaze slowly shifted to the tornado, speckled with countless black dots.
“Don’t tell me…”
Before Jigu could finish, a black dot broke free from the tornado. It rushed toward them, growing larger and larger until—
THUD!
“AAAH! Zombies are falling from the sky!”
Zombies were raining down from above.
Or rather—being thrown down.
The truck sped past a zombie writhing in the cornfield, and only then did everyone realize what those black dots swirling inside the tornado truly were.
What do we do?! There’s no space to designate an Earth Protection Zone!
Jigu clawed at his hair, groaning in frustration. He could only activate the Earth Protection Zone when their vehicle was fully stopped.
Stopping the truck might sound simple—but the system didn’t recognize the truck’s cargo bed as a separate area.
The skill’s range only covered the driver’s seat, passenger seat, and the main cabin with the bench seats.
Jigu clenched his teeth as he looked back at Caliph and Luke riding in the cargo bed.
If we squeeze together somehow… could we all fit?
But how was he supposed to explain that?
Who would agree to stop in the middle of nowhere, with a zombie tornado raging, and all huddle together?
Should he just force the issue? Just insist?
“Hey! Over there! I see a house!”
At that hopeless moment, Ryan’s excited shout rang out.
Jigu snapped his head up. Just as Ryan said, a single house came into view—hidden behind thick trees at the edge of the forest, where the cornfield ended.
Screeeech!
The truck skidded to a stop in front of the house, and everyone tumbled out in a rush. The wind was growing stronger by the second.
“I think someone’s living inside!”
Whoooosh! The wind was so loud that Edwin’s voice barely carried. Struggling just to stay upright, Jigu clung to the truck and scanned his surroundings.
So it’s a farm.
The sign hanging from a post in front of the house rattled violently, looking like it might tear free at any moment.
“What do we do?!”
Peggy, holding Ryan tightly in her arms, asked in fear. Was it fortunate—or disastrous—that someone might be inside?
It could end up being worse than facing the tornado out in the open.
In the distance, a zombie was flung through the air with a wet thud and smashed into the cornfield. Jigu recoiled in horror, then sprinted to the front door and began pounding on it.
“Please help us! Help me! Help me!”
“Waaah! Please help!”
As Jigu knocked, Ryan ran over and joined him, banging on the door with little fists.
But the door didn’t budge.
On the verge of tears, Jigu and Ryan clung to each other.
“I don’t want to die like this!”
“Me neither! I don’t want to die from zombie hail!”
Being bitten and turning into a zombie was one thing—but getting crushed by a falling zombie?
That kind of meaningless death was unacceptable.
Of course, becoming a zombie was even worse.
Should I just break the door?
Whoooom—WHOOOSH!
The roaring wind echoed ominously from all directions. The tornado was still some distance away, but its path could change at any moment. And zombies mixed with hail were just as deadly.
Jigu looked down at Ryan in his arms, then his gaze shifted to his inventory.
A small axe-shaped icon.
Should I use this?
Determination flashed in Jigu’s eyes—
Creeeak.
A rusty hinge groaned, and warm air spilled over his face.
Startled, Jigu looked up, his hand frozen before he could grab the axe.
An old man?
A white-haired elderly man stood in the doorway. But for an old man, his frame was enormous—intimidating.
And those eyes.
Sharp, like the edge of a scythe.
Clear wariness shone within them.
The old man’s pale blue eyes slowly swept over Jigu, Ryan, and the rest of the group. Then he turned slightly, gesturing inward.
“…Come inside.”
At the same time, Jigu’s vision was flooded with red.
