Chapter 35 - Yohan's Bizarre Vacation (3)

“It's cleaner in here than I expected.”

I looked around the hall. It had an ordinary wooden floor and wasn't particularly spacious. It looked like a multipurpose room used for recreational activities when small groups of children came to camp. That much was obvious at a glance.

There might be more zombies hiding inside, like the one earlier, so I checked the back of the hall and the storage room. There was audio equipment, including speakers, at the back. The storage room held mattresses, recreational equipment, paint, and assorted odds and ends. I didn't see anything suitable for a barricade, but fortunately, there were no more zombies.

The hall had the front doors we'd just come through, a side door leading to the adjoining building, an emergency exit, a stairway up to the roof, and windows for ventilation.

After having everyone lock the windows and draw the curtains, I returned to where I'd been and looked down at the zombie that had reverted to an ordinary corpse. I was the one who'd done it, but still...

'... It really worked just by laying it down and reciting the spell.'

That was a relief, and a good thing, but there seemed to be a bit of a class imbalance here. I remembered Ellie sending a zombie flying with a single punch outside.

Warrior—Hee-hee! Fist goes bam! Zombie gets smashed!

Mage—Heave-ho! Knock the zombie down yourself, then mumble an incantation.

... Right. Still, mages probably had better utility and a higher ceiling.

As I was thinking that, Ellie quietly approached to report.

“Yohan, we've locked all the windows and the side door.”

“Thank you. Now please look after the children somewhere out of the way. This isn't a good sight for them.”

I didn't care whether the kids saw it, but crying would be a nuisance. I glanced down at the corpse and gave her a subtle look. Ellie nodded.

“Lord, please help this soul find peaceful rest.”

Ellie offered a brief prayer and left.

For hygiene's sake, I took gloves from inside my coat and put them on, then removed the corpse's shirt to examine it. The man had pale, bloodless skin, small wounds, and a large bite wound on his neck. Judging by those injuries and the fact that he'd been in the hall, a zombie must have attacked and bitten his neck. He'd somehow escaped inside, only to turn into a zombie himself.

The important question was whether the bite had turned him into a zombie, or whether he'd become one after dying of blood loss. In modern zombie stories, the mainstream version was the scientific zombie: a biological weapon that infected people through bites. But the original occult zombie was a walking corpse controlled by magic, something like an undead slave. Their numbers didn't increase in such a convenient way.

I knew picking holes in zombie stories wasn't cool, but scientific zombies actually made even less sense than magical ones.

Magical zombies? Magic made them. Simple. Explanation over.

Scientific zombies? They claimed science had created some parasite or germ, but it made no scientific sense. They couldn't exist.

Anyway, an occult solution had worked, which meant these were occult zombies. I recalled how smoke had escaped when I laid the zombie down and recited the spell, turning it back into an ordinary corpse.

The fog filling the campground...

“...”

I stood up and spoke to Ellie.

“I'm going up to the roof for a moment to check the situation.”

“All right. Be careful.”

I climbed the emergency stairway to the roof and emerged into the fog again. Fortunately, there were no zombies up there. Visibility was poor, but I went to the railing and looked down over the campground. The zombies that had been pounding on the hall doors had scattered and were wandering around.

“Aaaah...”

Then my eyes narrowed at something I saw.

'What's that?'

Fog seeped into the body of someone who hadn't escaped in time and had been killed by an attacking zombie.

“Aaaah...”

The corpse rose and joined the ranks of the dead.

Apparently, the fog wasn't merely there to interfere with radio signals and isolate the campground. It probably served that purpose too, but... the fog itself was magic that turned corpses into zombies. Fog like this couldn't have occurred naturally.

'... What kind of lunatic caused this?'

Well, a magician, obviously. But even for a magician, this one was out of their mind. The only other magician I'd encountered was Kim Miryeo, a corpse whose head Grizzly had eaten. Still, even that murderous, human-flesh-eating psychopath had operated a farm as a front, knowing she couldn't afford to get caught.

Yet the magician responsible for this had wrapped the entire campground—possibly an even larger area—in magical fog. They were bound to get caught. Why do it? Had their magic run out of control?

“Hmm... Or do they have no intention of hiding it?”

Were they actually trying to show it off? To whom? Or was this just indiscriminate terrorism?

I looked down at the zombies aimlessly wandering around.

'... Are they looking for something?'

Forget it. How was I supposed to understand a psychopath's thinking? I had a rough idea of the cause now. If we held out here, this whole incident would be over. I turned and headed for the stairs.

I hadn't been a magician long, but even so, I didn't think magicians were invincible. Their weakness? They died if you shot them. They died if you cut their heads off, too. In short, unless they'd taken special measures, their bodies were ultimately those of ordinary humans.

Magicians were dangerous because they possessed powerful familiars like mine, or could attack through unexpected means—not because bullets didn't hurt them. As far as I could see, this was a reckless act of self-destruction. With an incident on this scale, there was no way those Special Response Section bastards would sit back and do nothing.

I remembered Shin Sion's dark eyes studying me. She'd been a calm woman whose emotions were difficult to read. In any case, eventually the Special Response Section would arrive and deal with whoever had caused this. All we had to do was hold out in the hall until then.

But when I came down the stairs and returned to the hall...

“Th-this guy! He's been bitten! Bitten!”

“No! I haven't! This is! Uh—!”

I'd barely been gone, and people were already shouting and fighting again.

“Everyone, please calm down. Oh, Yohan!”

Ellie, who'd been trying to stop the argument, spotted me. At her call, everyone's eyes turned toward me. Someone pointed at a man clutching his wrist and shouted.

“That man! A zombie bit him! He's going to turn into... one of those, right? Hurry up and do something!”

Ahh, yes. Now this was a zombie story. Distrust among survivors. Couldn't they just get along? In other words, this was a massive pain in the ass.

“These are occult zombies. Bites don't infect you.”

I gave the agitated, frightened people a quick explanation as I approached the man clutching his wrist.

“If you go smashing his head in yelling, 'Die, infected scum!' you'll actually turn him into a zombie. So calm down.”

“You've been bitten? Let's take a look.”

“...”

I took a bandage from my bag and wrapped his wrist.

Once things had more or less settled down, I addressed the survivors. There were nineteen of us: me, Ellie, Sua, six children, and ten other campers.

“I checked from the roof. There are zombies all over the place outside, so we can't leave. But with something like this happening, rescuers will come. Let's hold out here until then.”

Getting rid of the zombie when we'd first entered the hall must have made quite an impression. People followed my instructions and settled down in corners of the room. Though I had no idea how long this mood would last. As I looked over the group, Ellie approached.

“I'm so glad you're here, Yohan. Also, I wrapped the body in a tarp and put it in storage... It was frightening the children. I'm sorry I did it without asking.”

“No, you did the right thing. Let's get some rest ourselves now.”

I didn't want to keep looking at a corpse either, so I didn't mind.

When I went over to where Ellie's group had gathered, the children were huddled together and Sua was rubbing her ankle. Apparently, the sprain was lingering longer than I'd expected. Well... I didn't know whether it would work, but if I left her like that, she'd obviously beg to be saved again later, and Ellie would waste time rescuing her again. I decided to heal her leg and use the opportunity to test some magic.

I took <Mysteries of the Worm> from my bag and checked the spell.

[Magic for Healing Sprains, Fractures, and Bruises]

Its utterly hopeless spells tended to overshadow the rest, but perhaps because its creator was a magician from the mean streets of the Crusades, the grimoire contained some surprisingly useful minor spells for everyday life.

I approached Sua, knelt on one knee, and said,

“Give me your leg. I'll wrap it in a compression bandage.”

Sua narrowed her eyes.

“Huh? You're not pretending to treat me so you can grope me, are you? Ellie!”

“...”

“Okay! Okay! I was joking.”

Sua took off her sock, revealing her pale foot. It was a pretty foot, considering her shitty personality.

“Don't sniff it. And, um... thank you.”

Those last words were quiet, but I still heard them.

I wrapped a bandage snugly around her ankle and recited the spell.

“Bone out of place, blood out of place. Bone to bone, blood to blood, joint to joint.”

I held the injured area and finished.

“In the Lord's name, I command you. Be joined.”

Sua blinked.

“What did you do?”

“A spell to help you heal faster. Probably about as effective as a mother's healing touch.”

“... I don't have a mom. I don't remember ever getting her healing touch.”

“Figured as much.”

“What the hell—?!”

Sua sprang to her feet, then looked down at her ankle.

“Huh? ... It doesn't hurt.”

She stared at me in surprise.

“Mister, are you Jesus?”

“Do you think I'd be Jesus?”

I stood up.

“If you have to compare me to someone, it'd be John Constantine.”

John Constantine—the protagonist of the movie Constantine. A magician and exorcist. Cool as hell.

Sua tilted her head.

“John? Who's Constantine? Talking about stuff only you know, you fucking nerd.”

That was a bit of a shock.

'She doesn't know John Constantine?'

The movie's plot had been pretty unremarkable, but... the sheer cool factor had been incredible. Fine. If she didn't know, she didn't know.

“Forget it. Let's actually rest now.”

I brought a few mattresses out of storage, laid them on the floor, and said,

“Sit on these. Sitting on the floor too long is bad for your back.”

Ellie looked after the children clustered on the mattresses, then came over and sat beside Yohan.

“Thank you. ... What should we do now?”

“Who knows? There's nothing to do right now, so like I said, let's get some proper rest.”

“Huh?”

I flopped down on a mattress. Ahh, comfortable.

“You can just sit and zone out, or get a little shut-eye. Or since we came to camp anyway, we could treat it as an indoor camp and chat and have some fun. That would be good for our mental health too.”

We couldn't do anything but wait for rescuers whose arrival time was unknown. Looking on the bright side, that meant we had time to do nothing and rest.

“No one knows what's going to happen next.”

That was exactly why we needed to rest while we could.

“So let's conserve our strength for whatever comes next.”

I closed my eyes and settled into a comfortable position with my arm as a pillow.

“Let me know in ten minutes. We can take turns resting.”

“Oh... okay!”

Ellie nodded. Sua gazed in astonishment at Yohan, who was resting with a more relaxed expression than anyone else in the hall.

'Wow... Several people are dead and we're surrounded by zombies, and he's saying we should relax and enjoy camp. Is he a psychopath?'

Unfortunately, Yohan's rest didn't last long. The survivors woke him with their bickering.

“If only you hadn't suggested coming to this campground!”

“How is this my fault?!”

I frowned, half sat up, and looked around. ... Now that they were starting to feel safe, they were kicking off their speedrun to a natural death.

Then my eyes met Ellie's, and I saw her blue eyes flinch. I realized why this woman who could smash a zombie with one punch was so anxious. Her trembling voice rang out.

“Um... I'm sorry.”

Absurdly, she thought we'd been caught up in this because of her.

“You don't need to apologize, Ellie. It's not your fault. This is just something no one could have predicted.”

I meant it. Who could have known a horde of zombies would attack the campground? Besides, this particular incident was the work of some crazy magician. The lunatic who suddenly charged at people with a knife was at fault—not the pedestrians who happened to get caught up in it.

And Namgung Sua seized the moment and shouted at Ellie!

“That's right! It's all your fault! I told you I'd pay, so we should go on a hotel staycation instead of camping!”

I looked at Sua in amazement.

'Wow... I was going to leave her behind, and she's only alive because Ellie brought her along. Now she's blaming Ellie. Does she have no human heart?'

I raised my hand and gave Sua a light slap on the head.

“Watch your mouth.”

“Ow! I was joking. Why'd you hit me?”

Sua grumbled, then spoke to Ellie.

“You were acting so miserable, I was just teasing. Like the mister said, it's not your fault. Cheer up.”

Ellie's expression eased at those words.

“Thank you.”

She gave a gentle smile.

Anyway, some time passed. Despite my suggestion that we relax...

GRRRRRL.

Sua and I were sitting blankly against the hall wall. She glanced at me.

“... Mister, I'm hungry.”

I glanced back at her.

“Me too.”

“No! Fuck! Don't sympathize! Don't you have any food?!”

We did have food for camp, but we hadn't unloaded the luggage, so it was all still on the bus. That was why I'd kept Grizzly inside the grimoire to conserve energy.

“If I had any food, it'd be going in my mouth. Why would it go in yours?”

“Because I'm super cute and pretty. You might give it to me.”

“That's some healthy confidence.”

I gave her that offhand reply and took the campground guide map out of my bag. There was a convenience store in the building connected to the hall through the side-door passage.

Right. Resting was fine, but we ought to have something to eat while we rested.