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Chapter: 12
“What the hell is this! You bastards!”
At someone’s furious shout, Jigu gasped and jerked upright. Her vision went black for a moment.
“Ugh… u—urk…!”
Her head felt like it was splitting open, and her stomach churned with nausea. After retching everything out, Jigu coughed roughly. Caliph, who had been silently patting her back, asked in a worried voice,
“Are you okay? Damn it—you must’ve hit your head hard.”
The hand brushing her forehead was surprisingly gentle. It throbbed a little, but the pain wasn’t as bad as she’d expected.
Jigu nodded vaguely and pulled Caliph’s hand down. More than anything, she wanted to know who had done this.
“What happened?”
“I’m not sure. They seem to be part of the other group…,” Edwin answered stiffly from beside Caliph.
At his words, Jigu shot an unpleasant glare up the slope.
In the distance, an overturned SUV lay there, two injured men sprawled on the ground, and another man held by the collar in Maya’s grip.
That huge shout earlier—loud enough to boil a train—must have been Maya’s voice. Luckily, no one seemed badly hurt… ah, Ryan.
The cold sensation of thin legs cooling beneath her hands sent a chill down Jigu’s spine.
“Ryan…!”
Shoving past Caliph, Jigu crawled clumsily toward Peggy, who was holding the child. Peggy’s clothes were soaked and stained dark red with blood.
“R-Ryan…”
Jigu froze, her face drained of color, whispering the child’s name. She was afraid to check.
Then, from Peggy’s arms, came the sound of quiet sobbing.
He was alive.
Only then did Jigu let out the breath she’d been holding and carefully spoke.
“Ryan… a-are you okay?”
“Hic… it hurts…”
Ryan, his face buried against Peggy, lifted his head with effort at Jigu’s voice. Maybe because he’d lost so much blood, his complexion looked frighteningly pale.
Jigu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with her fingertips and gently checked his injured leg.
The wound had been hastily treated, tightly bound with torn strips of a shirt.
Thank God. No one died.
The tension drained from her body all at once. As Jigu finally seemed to calm down, Edwin let out a quiet sigh and asked Peggy,
“Who are they?”
“They’re people we ended up traveling with when the shelter collapsed. The same ones who locked us inside the mall.”
Peggy’s face was icy as she answered.
They’d already used them as bait to escape safely. If so, they could’ve just gone their own way. What kind of grudge did they have to ram a moving vehicle like this?
Not only Jigu’s group’s car, but the men’s vehicle as well lay wrecked and half-destroyed on the road.
But the question was answered almost immediately.
Thud!
“Ugh—kyaaah!”
After yelling at the man she was holding for a long time, Maya suddenly screamed and rolled down the slope.
As everyone’s attention snapped toward her, Caliph cursed under his breath and pulled Jigu tightly into his arms.
“What… is that…?”
Peeking over Caliph’s shoulder, Jigu stared blankly up the slope.
The man who had been in Maya’s grasp only moments ago was now hanging limply in midair—his face pierced clean through.
Where his facial features should have been was a strange, shriveled black hand, like a rotted tree root.
“H-How did it get here…?!”
Recognizing that grotesque hand, Peggy stammered as she clutched Ryan tighter. The nightmare of that night in Fencing Hill came rushing back.
The disaster that haunted even their dreams—the dead who had driven most of the Fencing Hill Shelter’s population to their deaths.
The mutated Sentinel.
Creak. Crack.
Thud.
The black hand slid free with a sickening sound. Blood poured down from the hollow where the man’s face had been.
The empty space looked so unreal that no words would come.
As Jigu stared blankly, at a loss for speech, pale gray eyes—like a thin veil—slowly turned toward her from behind the fallen man.
Those eyes…
Empty eyes that reflected nothing. Completely different from the ashen eyes of the man holding her.
It’s a zombie.
The moment she realized what it was, the gray eyes lunged straight at her.
Whoosh!
A violent gust swept her hair aside. Jigu blinked dumbly, staring at the gray eyes right in front of her.
Something was wrong. Those eyes—eyes that should reflect nothing—were clearly fixed on her.
Zombies didn’t distinguish between friend and foe.
Otherwise, Mac wouldn’t have eaten Emily. Zombies devoured any living human, stranger or family alike.
But this one had a clear target.
As if no one else existed, it stared only at Jigu—at her alone.
Is that really a dead thing?
The sudden doubt sent her thoughts spinning.
Bang!
At that instant, with a brutal impact, the mutated Sentinel that had stopped right before Jigu’s nose was blown far away.
“Damn it, Edwin! Take Jigu and run—now!”
Grinding his teeth, Caliph shouted after hurling the mutated Sentinel aside. Only then did Edwin snap back to his senses and hurriedly scoop Jigu up.
“Everyone, get in the truck!”
At Edwin’s desperate shout, the others scrambled to their feet.
Despite rolling down the slope several times, the military truck was in relatively decent shape.
Edwin shoved Jigu into the passenger seat and turned the ignition with trembling hands. One by one, the others threw themselves into the truck.
A few unfamiliar faces flashed past her vision, but everyone’s attention was fixed on the two Sentinels tangled together in the distance, and no one stopped them.
Rumble!
With a roar closer to thunder than an engine, the truck lurched forward. As the damaged engine turned, a sharp, burnt smell filled the air.
We have to get away. Now.
Gripping the steering wheel with pale, cold hands, Edwin slammed the accelerator.
Seeing Caliph growing distant, Jigu jolted and grabbed Edwin’s arm.
“Wait! Caliph—!”
“We’re no help! We’d only get in the captain’s way!”
Vroooom—!
But just as the truck began to move, its wheels slipped uselessly into a shallow pit.
Cold sweat trickled down Edwin’s tense back.
Damn it. Damn it!
Cursing under his breath, Edwin slammed the steering wheel and shouted toward the cargo bay.
“You two! Get out and push—now!”
“What? Why us?!”
“Are you crazy? What if you just leave us behind?!”
The two men shouted back in panic, protesting instead. At their shameless attitude, Peggy and Maya’s faces hardened.
“You cause all this and now what? You should be grateful we even let you ride!”
It was those men who had rammed a perfectly fine vehicle. They’d taken the only car to save themselves—and now they’d dragged that monstrous mutated Sentinel here too.
“It’s a mutated Sentinel! Damn it, do you want us all to die here?!”
Veins bulging, Maya slammed her fist against the cargo wall and screamed. Even so, the men kept trembling in fear, still talking back.
“Well, if you’re that desperate, why don’t you push? Huh?”
“Yeah! You get out! Unless you wanna die, like you said!”
The air froze solid.
If she could, Jigu wanted to grab them by the collar and drag them out herself.
But there wasn’t even time to argue. While Caliph held it off, they needed to get as far away as possible.
A mutated Sentinel was a disaster incarnate.
Ordinary humans like them had no chance against a mutated Sentinel wielding its powers from life. And Caliph wasn’t in good shape either.
Once a Sentinel’s mutation rate exceeded 80%, they began to lose control over both their abilities and their body.
Caliph’s current mutation rate was 89%—already near the limit. He could collapse at any moment.
“Damn it….”
Edwin muttered a curse under his breath.
Vroooom—!
No matter how hard he pressed the accelerator, the wheels only spun.
And he couldn’t hand the wheel to anyone else.
He couldn’t trust anyone.
This was a world where only those who had lost their humanity survived.
Weren’t these the very people who had already used them as bait once?
Edwin bit his lip, about to shout at the men again—
Thump!
The sound of a car door slamming shut echoed.
Startled, Edwin hurriedly turned to the passenger seat.
The woman who should have been there was gone.
