EPZ 13

Chapter: 13

“Push.”

“W-what?”

Jigu, who had gotten down from the truck, was pointing a gun at the two men riding in the cargo bed.

The startled men hesitated and raised their hands, but soon they started to sneer and mock her.

“Hey, if you shoot badly, you’ll be the one who gets hurt.”

There was no way they would be scared of a threat from a small girl whose chin barely reached their chest. One man looked at her soft-looking hands, as if she had never fired a gun before, and waved dismissively while laughing.

“We’re two, and you’re alone. Don’t try anything stupid—”

“Who says I’m alone?”

Maya, who had also gotten down from the truck, raised her gun at them and let out a short, cold laugh.

“This kid aside, I will shoot. You know that better than anyone, right?”

The magazine she had inserted was empty, so the gun was basically just a useless piece of metal—but there was no way they could know that.

The men’s faces stiffened as they stared at Maya’s hands.

They had already experienced her cruelty back at the Fencing Hill Shelter, and again on the journey to Rickford Village.

On top of that, the soldier was also watching them from the driver’s seat.

“Damn it! We’ll push! We’re pushing!”

“Shit, seriously… If you leave us behind, we’ll chase you even as zombies!”

In the end, outnumbered, the men got down from the cargo bed while throwing out meaningless threats.

“Don’t try anything funny. Push properly—unless you want to lose that tiny head of yours.”

The men’s eyes widened in shock at the filthy words coming out of Jigu’s small mouth.

Doesn’t look it, but she’s got a nasty temper. Spitting on the ground, the men ground their teeth and began pushing the truck.

Vrooom—!

As Edwin pressed down hard on the pedal, he felt the truck slowly begin to move forward.

Checking the men pushing with red faces, Edwin carefully turned the steering wheel and stepped on the pedal again. The truck jolted once, then suddenly surged forward.

“Got it!”

Edwin hurriedly stopped the truck and turned around with a bright expression. He saw the men and Maya scrambling to leap back onto the cargo bed.

But Jigu remained standing there, rooted to the spot.

“Jigu! What are you doing? Get on!”

Edwin shouted urgently. But Jigu only shook her head slowly, her expression unreadable.

“Go on without me.”

Beeee— Beeee—

A faint warning alarm echoed on the wind.

Turning her stiff face away from Edwin, Jigu started running toward the slope.

She couldn’t leave Caliph behind like this. Without Caliph, she couldn’t enter the Rangers Shelter. Right now, he was the most important person to her.

But… was that really the only reason?

Ash-gray eyes that had looked down at her with worry kept flashing through her mind.

Beyond the deep red sunset, night was slowly falling. The blazing glow, as if burning up the last moments of life, dyed the slope in crimson.

Then—

Kwaaang!

A massive crash echoed, nothing like the sound of two people colliding.

She saw the mutated Sentinel’s hand plunge into Caliph’s chest. Caliph coughed up blood and bent forward, and behind his back, black fingers stretched out wildly like rotten tree roots.

Caliph tightly grabbed the arm that had pierced through his abdomen and pressed himself closer to the creature.

Sensing danger, the mutated Sentinel made a final struggle and tore violently at Caliph’s stomach.

At the same time—

Bang!

A gunshot rang out.

Caliph, buried in the Sentinel’s embrace, fired a bullet straight into the center of its forehead. A foul-smelling liquid—no one knew whose—splattered across the sunset-colored hill.

No.

Jigu stared blankly at the collapsing figure, then rushed up the hill in panic.

No. No. Please.

A desperate prayer, not even knowing who she was begging, stuck in her throat. The metallic smell of blood drifted on the warm wind.

“Caliph!”

Jigu swallowed a scream as she looked at him. The man, torn apart beyond recognition, looked closer to a corpse than a living person.

How… where… where do I even start?

Her lost hands hovered uselessly in the air. From the large hole in Caliph’s waist, crushed organs were mixed with blood into a horrific mess.

“C-Caliph, open your eyes. Don’t die. You can’t die. Please…”

Trembling in terror, Jigu desperately gathered the red lumps scattered in the grass.

Beneath half-closed eyelids, his ash-gray eyes were sinking into a dull haze.

In that moment, the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

What was this overwhelming sense of loss?

They hadn’t even known each other that long. He was just a character in a game.

In truth, he was no different from a zombie. Zombies, and the people living here—weren’t they all just data?

But at the same time, he was the survivor who had appeared like a miracle before her, as she rotted alive in unbearable loneliness.

She remembered the warmth of his body against hers. His quiet breathing as he slept. His low voice calling her name.

The feeling that she truly existed.

Caliph was definitely alive.

But now…?

Beeee— Beeee—

Only the loud warning alarm echoed across the blood-red slope.

Jigu’s eyes drifted blankly toward the blinking watch screen on the man’s wrist.

[Party Member]
– Caliph Roxberg (27)
Health: 12% / Mutation Rate: 94%

“…He’s alive.”

“Damn it, zombies—! Jigu, we need to run right now!”

Edwin, who had chased after her, shouted urgently.

Zombies were gathering, drawn by the thick smell of blood. It wasn’t surprising. Mutated Sentinels always attracted zombies.

No one knew the exact reason. The most likely theory was that a Sentinel’s unique wavelength stimulated zombies—but the dead couldn’t speak.

Seeing the mass of black heads swarming in the distance, Edwin clenched his teeth and yanked hard on Jigu’s arm as she sat on the ground.

“Damn it, get up! We have to leave now!”

“Caliph is coming with us! He’s still alive!”

At Jigu’s shout, Edwin’s face hardened.

Alive?

Of course he was. The Captain was a Sentinel. But was that really a good thing?

“Damn it…”

As the warning alarm blared and the watch flashed red, Edwin cursed under his breath and raised his gun toward Caliph.

[Mutation Rate 94%…]
[…Mutation Rate 95%]

The mutation rate was rapidly climbing on the screen.

“Edwin… what are you doing?”

Jigu asked in a trembling voice as she saw him aim the gun at Caliph.

Did he not understand her? She said he was still alive. Then why?

“We have to kill him before he mutates. Otherwise, we’re all in danger.”

Mutate.

Kill.

A chill ran up her arms.

Edwin was saying Caliph had to die.

Why?

“No. Why? Why do you have to kill Caliph?”

“…Haa.”

Had she really fallen into a completely different world?

Sentinels, mutation viruses, zombies—these were common knowledge to anyone born and raised on this land.

Where was he even supposed to start explaining?

Wiping the sweat from his forehead irritably, Edwin took a deep breath.

“The Captain is a Sentinel—a clone human created for war. A living weapon with physical abilities pushed beyond human limits. Sentinels don’t get infected when bitten by zombies. But if they overuse their special abilities, those abilities collapse and mutation progresses. The watch on his wrist shows the mutation value—that is, the mutation rate.”

As Edwin spoke rapidly, Jigu silently blinked and looked down at Caliph.

She didn’t fully understand everything. But the shopping mall quest she had cleared, the words Sentinel, mutation, zombie, mutation rate—that was enough to grasp the situation.

And she knew something else.

She had a way to save him.

“What’s Caliph’s ability?”

“…Regeneration. Unless his brain is destroyed in one shot, he won’t die.”

That was enough.

Jigu, who had been staring at Caliph, broke into a small smile.

That was truly enough.

This man would not die.

He would not turn into a zombie.

 As long as I’m by his side—

never.

 A quiet thrill spread through her chest.