Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 46.4: The Messiah (4)

I stepped out of the bunker and scanned the area.

Nothing unusual caught my attention.

The rifle hanging on the side of the motorcycle drew my gaze.

Despite Defender's advice, I couldn’t shake the concern that there might be competitors out there.

Those are far more dangerous than zombies.

The worst-case scenario would be an ambush while I escort IamJesus out of the bunker.

If that happened, surviving would be nearly impossible.

Thankfully, there were no signs of an ambush, not even a hint of human presence.

It was probably just needless worry, but I’d rather be overly cautious than too relaxed.

“You can come out now.”

A trembling hand extended over the ladder, holding out a bundle of belongings.

Inside were a satellite terminal, a laptop, and a retro gaming console.

Baek Seung-hyun’s motorcycle had ample storage compartments on the front, rear, and sides of the frame.

The elongated satellite receiver, which jutted out like a spire, was the only thing that didn’t fit neatly and had to be propped diagonally in the rear compartment.

“Come on, climb out.”

IamJesus was still inside the bunker.

To be exact, he clung to the ladder at the entrance, where the bunker met the outside world.

His frail body looked like a cicada larva clinging to a tree.

Cicada larvae shed their skin while hanging like that, but this guy? Well, in a way, you could say he’s undergone his own metamorphosis.

“Are you staying in there?”

Those wide, glowing eyes said it all.

“C-can you give me a hand?”

IamJesus’s trembling voice cracked as he spoke.

I grabbed his bony hand and pulled him out into the world.

He stood there, looking shocked, taking in the outside world with wide, unblinking eyes.

“...”

I waited for him to settle down while checking the map.

Fortunately, the church wasn’t far—just about 2 kilometers.

However, I couldn’t forget that this area was infested with zombies.

The closer we got to the city center, the more zombies we’d encounter.

When zombies swarm together, smashing them isn’t effective.

Unless I had superhuman strength to knock down five zombies at once, I’d need to switch to other weapons.

In the end, firearms are the answer.

But firearms are a double-edged sword.

If you shoot one zombie, ten more will come. Kill ten, and hundreds will swarm you.

Without Baek Seung-hyun’s motorcycle, I wouldn’t even dare to enter this area.

“Ahhh!”

As I reviewed the route, a sudden scream rang out behind me.

“What’s wrong?”

I turned to see IamJesus sitting on the ground, pointing at a makeshift wall with a look of utter terror.

“A-a-a corpse!”

“It’s a zombie.”

“A zombie?”

“Yeah. They were here when I came in.”

I helped him back to his feet.

“D-did you... did you kill them, Skelton?”

IamJesus stared at the two collapsed zombies with trembling eyes.

Both had their heads split open by an axe, grayish fluid oozing out.

Despite his fear, he cautiously approached the zombies, his wide eyes fixed on them.

“It’s my first time... seeing a zombie.”

“Seriously?”

“Seeing one in person, yeah.”

He stared intently at the zombie wearing a suit.

“D-did you kill it, Skelton?”

“Yeah. It tried to kill me.”

“Are you good at fighting?”

“I’m good enough to protect myself.”

I checked my watch. It was around 3 p.m.

It was time to start worrying about sunset.

We had to finish our business and leave this city before nightfall.

Everyone, even children, knows zombies are nocturnal.

But IamJesus couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the zombie corpse in the suit.

“What are you doing?”

“N-nothing.”

Even as he replied, his gaze stayed fixed on the corpse.

“Don’t stare at it too long. Zombies are just reanimated corpses. Fixating on them messes with your head.”

“Got it, Skelton.”

I thought about handing him a weapon but stopped myself.

A pistol seemed reasonable, but someone this nervous might end up shooting me instead of a zombie.

It’s a dark comedy you see all too often—people killing their allies out of panic rather than their enemies.

“Let’s go before it gets too late.”

The city of the dead was eerily silent.

The roads were blocked with debris and abandoned cars, but the buildings lining the streets were in surprisingly good condition.

Some shops even looked as if they hadn’t changed much since before the war, giving the area a surreal, time-frozen quality.

If not for the occasional zombie visible on the street, I might’ve been tempted to walk into one of the shops, like an audio equipment store.

Even the best beatboxing is wasted if the microphone sucks.

“Can’t we just ride the motorcycle through here?”

IamJesus asked, his eyes still filled with fear as he scanned the streets.

We were pushing the motorcycle as we approached the city center.

It couldn’t be helped.

The engine noise could attract zombies.

Thankfully, the city was mostly flat, making it easy to roll the motorcycle along.

“Zombies might hear the sound and swarm us.”

There were only two times when I’d start the motorcycle here: when heading home or when zombies started pouring out of buildings.

“Hold up.”

There was a zombie in our path.

According to a manual distributed by schools, zombies had vision but couldn’t process information properly.

Even if they saw something move in the distance, they wouldn’t react unless their brain registered it as a target.

The manual claimed the safe distance from a non-aggressive zombie was about 15 meters.

However, this theory was nonsense.

If an active zombie spotted you, it could run at you from 30 meters or even 100 meters away.

Trusting the 15-meter rule was a surefire way to end up joining the zombie horde.

Still, in cases like now, when there were no active zombies around, the rule could somewhat apply.

Zombies were scattered here and there, but none seemed to notice us.

We carefully cleared the path, dealing only with those directly in our way.

Thwack!

Another zombie went down.

IamJesus, who had been startled earlier, seemed to be getting used to the zombie hunting.

“It’s like a game, huh? Like Final Fight when you smash them, bam!”

“Wanna try?”

“N-no!”

Fresh air really does seem to do wonders for the mind.

Even this guy, who had been so gloomy, was starting to brighten up.

Maybe that’s why he suddenly started talking.

“This street... I used to drive my Bentley here.”

“Bentley? You had one of those?”

“It was my dad’s car.”

“Ah.”

“My car was a Porsche.”

“Wow.”

“But when I parked the Porsche on the street, no one paid much attention. When I parked the Bentley, though, everyone would stop and stare.”

The fact that he lived a wealthy life was obvious from his bunker’s style alone.

Some of us built bunkers out of sheer desperation, enduring public ridicule, family opposition, and even financial ruin.

But IamJesus? His bunker was just a leisure project.

It wasn’t even in a remote location but right in the middle of a commercial district on the outskirts of the city—a luxury camping version of a bunker.

Ironically, that frivolous approach to survival was probably what kept him alive.

“Wait, this place...”

IamJesus stopped in front of a shop.

It looked like it had once been a flower shop.

The windows were shattered, the interior was in ruins, and the sign had decayed to the point of being illegible.

“Do you know this place?”

“Yeah. My sister used to work here.”

“Your real sister?”

“No, a church sister.”

IamJesus suddenly entered the shop.

I had to grab my axe and follow closely.

Thankfully, there were no zombies inside.

“Be careful. Zombies often hide inside buildings.”

“Sorry.”

As he passed by, I got a good look at his face.

Despite the messy beard and hair covering half his features, the urgency in his expression was unmistakable.

He must’ve been looking for someone important to him.

Sure enough, he emerged from the shop holding a framed photo.

“It’s her!”

Inside the frame was a picture of a young woman.

She had a neat and beautiful face, with a charm that shone even in her modest clothing.

“She was so kind to me!”

A church sister, huh?

For his sake, I hoped she was a decent person.

But considering his father ran a church more akin to Sodom and Gomorrah, I didn’t have high hopes.

I checked the map.

We were close.

One more corner, and we’d see the fortress-like church.

I gripped my hammer tightly and carefully rounded the corner.

A shadow lunged at me.

Thwack!

I finished one off, but it wasn’t alone.

Another lunged right after.

“Kreeeeek!”

I stepped back and swung the hammer’s handle at its temple.

Crack!

Its head snapped to the side, and I followed up with a crushing blow to the crown of its skull.

Thwack!

The sensation of the handle breaking through the zombie’s head was my confirmation of a kill.

I took a moment to catch my breath, examining the fallen bodies.

They were young women.

Why do so many zombies in this area wear dresses?

The one I killed earlier and these two were all in dresses.

“...”

I turned around.

IamJesus was still standing in front of the shop, clutching the photo frame, unwilling to move.

“We need to go. We have to get out of here before sunset.”

“Y-yeah! Got it!”

He followed as I turned the corner.

And then he stopped.

“Oh...”

IamJesus’s frail figure swayed precariously.

I could understand his feelings.

The towering church that once stood like a fortress was now nothing more than an eerie ruin.

Judging by the state of things, it seemed to have been struck directly by a Chinese missile—a particularly heavy one at that.

You might call it sheer bad luck, but it could very well have been intentional.

After all, the Communist Party has a reputation for rejecting religion. It wouldn’t be surprising if they chose to destroy this building as a symbolic act or to make a statement.

Regardless of the reason, the reality was that his father’s church had been utterly obliterated.

“Ah, it’s screwed,” IamJesus muttered.

Surprisingly, his reaction was indifferent.

He stared at the church with cold eyes.

“Dumb bastard, fer, son of a bh,” he spat, the curse words tumbling out from behind his unkempt beard.

“Serves him right. He didn’t listen to me, and this is what happened. That bald idiot. I told him everyone would die once the war broke out, but he wouldn’t listen. Never.”

It was a scene I’d seen countless times—someone cursing their own family after losing them.

I let him vent.

If it eased his living heart even a little, it was a small price for the dead to pay.

I stayed silent as IamJesus turned to look at me, his glowing eyes filled with an eerie light.

“You know my dad was a piece of s**t, right?”

“Your dad?”

“You know, don’t you? There’s not a single person in Korea who doesn’t.”

I studied his face and slowly nodded.

“I’ve heard bits and pieces.”

Hearing that, IamJesus let out a derisive snort and fixed his gaze on the ruined church, spewing venomous words like a blade.

“My dad used to claim he could hear Jesus talking to him directly.”

“That’s impressive.”

“Impressive? He was a f*ing lunatic. It was all bullst. But that bulls**t worked on some rich old hag, and then her friends bought into it, and that’s how this whole thing got so big. It used to be just a tiny little startup church.”

IamJesus stared into the empty air, his expression twisted with bitterness.

“I mean, who the hell does he think he is, huh? Why would Jesus talk to some bastard who raped middle school girls?”

“...”

“It’s all because they didn’t listen to me! I told them to evacuate. I told them, but no one listened...”

After a torrent of curses, IamJesus crouched down, hugging his knees.

I stood beside him, hammer in hand, scanning for any zombies lurking nearby.

“F***... that idiot... he should’ve listened to me...”

Tears began to stream down his face.

At that moment, I understood.

For all his hatred, he still loved his father.

“Do you want to go closer to the church?”

The words left my mouth impulsively.

But I won’t deny that a sharp calculation lay beneath them.

Getting this guy to calm down quickly and leading him out of this zombie-infested hellhole was my best option.

IamJesus looked up at me, his tear-filled, glowing eyes locking onto mine as he extended his hand.

“Y-yeah.”

I helped him to his feet.

A ruin.

We both gazed up at the crumbling remains of the church.

Its grotesque skeleton reminded me of the Behemoth’s corpse from the Bible—a monstrous, desolate sight.

I could see IamJesus’s eyes gradually calming as he stared at the ruin.

It seemed he was starting to accept reality.

Deep down, he must’ve already known.

In nearly three years of continuous calamity, everything he knew had been destroyed.

He was simply late in confirming it with his own eyes.

“Skelton.”

He looked at me.

It was time to leave.

But then—

“What?”

His eyes began to shake violently.

“N-nuna?”

I turned around.

A zombie in a flowing dress was staggering toward us.

There was no doubt about it.

That zombie—it was the woman in the photo frame.

“N-nuna...”

She was undeniably beautiful.

Even in her zombified state, traces of her charm remained.

I could see why he would cling to her memory.

But a zombie is a zombie.

Whatever she might have been to him, she had to be dealt with.

When should I kill her?

Taking the lead and doing it immediately might be too much for him.

I decided to wait and see.

“Nuna?”

IamJesus began moving toward the zombie.

“Grrrr...”

The zombie recognized him.

It bared its teeth and lunged at him.

“Grrrrrrr!!!”

IamJesus stood frozen, staring blankly at the zombie charging at him.

“N-nuna?”

“Your sister is dead.”

I lunged forward with my hammer, ready to crush the zombie’s skull.

But before I could swing, a cold hand grabbed my wrist.

It was thin and frail, yet it radiated an indescribable power.

Boom!

A shockwave erupted from IamJesus’s chest, where his heart was.

I felt my insides tremble and stopped in my tracks, staring at him.

IamJesus shook his head at me.

“No.”

He walked toward the zombie.

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“My sister is alive.”

I was witnessing a miracle.

The zombie, which had been about to attack him, stopped.

It stood still, watching the human approaching it.

Almost as if it thought it was human, too.

Boom!

Another shockwave emanated from IamJesus’s chest.

The energy felt disturbingly similar to a monster’s aura.

“...”

Curiosity stirred within me.

I wanted to see how this miracle would end.