On Hiatus: God's Personal Reasons-Chapter 310: #Side Story: Series Completed but Continued for Personal Reasons (5)

“Haa...! Haa...!”

The man ran with all his might, gasping for breath. His backpack was nowhere to be seen, perhaps discarded along the way.

As I followed him, a thought occurred. The priest had sacrificed a child named Judas to save the two. But why? Was it really worth sacrificing the child he was caring for?

Suddenly, I remembered both the name of the bomb shelter and the girl's.

Eden... and Eve?

Eden, the cradle of humanity, was said to have been created by God. Eve was the first woman born there. And among the eleven children the priest had been sheltering, there wasn’t a single female.

The man arrived back at Eden, but when he turned the iron door’s handle, it was firmly shut. With bloodshot eyes, he firmly raised the axe high above his head.

Clang clang!

With each swing of his axe, fiery sparks flew, echoing the man’s rage.

Clang clang!

The entrance to Eden finally opened. The priest stood in the hallway, waiting for the man.

“You said you were leaving. Why did you come back?”

The cross on the priest’s neck glowed under the light from the lamp. Before him stood Eve, still wearing the dog collar, staring blankly at the man. Her chain was now in the priest’s hand.

On the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, the man shouted, “Give her back to me!”

“Didn’t you entrust Eve to us?”

The man threw something at the old priest’s feet. It was the half-eaten arm of a child.

“I see that you’ve found Judas. What a useless thing you’ve done.” The priest sighed, shaking his head.

“Release her!”

“Won’t you let me explain? Judas was a devout child. He sacrificed himself for you and Eve—and ultimately, for the revival of humanity. Please don’t ruin his martyrdom with your foolish actions.”

The man gritted his teeth as he recalled the bell he heard that day. It wasn’t the sound of a miracle, but the horrifying scream of a child being torn apart by zombies. He pointed his axe at the priest.

“I won’t say it twice. Hand her over at once!”

The priest shook his head. “I can’t. Eve is humanity’s hope for a new world. She’ll become the mother of humanity, just like her new name suggests. I’ll make it happen with my own hands, right here in Eden!”

“You’re insane, old man! I’ll kill you!” The man gripped the axe fiercely, approaching the priest.

Even if the blade was badly damaged from trying to break through the door earlier, crushing an old man’s skull wouldn’t be that difficult. Yet, the man stopped in his tracks. The priest held a knife against the girl’s neck.

“What are you doing...?”

“Put that wicked, satanic weapon down. Now,” Threatened the priest, and blood trickled down Eve’s snow-white neck from the shallow cut.

“You talk about her being hope and all, yet you’re threatening to kill her?”

“Do you think Eve and the other children can survive without me?! I can always save another girl in the future. But as a pioneer tasked with the sacred mission of preserving humanity by the Lord, I am different! I’m irreplaceable! As agonizing as this is, I have no choice! It’s for the sake of humanity and the Lord!”

“You’ve lost it.”

“Say whatever you want. How could a murderer understand the Lord’s will, anyway? Drop that weapon.”

The man clenched his jaws, lowering the axe to the ground.

Thud!

“The pistol at your waist too.”

The man did as he was asked.

The children came running at the commotion.

“F-Father? U-uncle?”

The priest gestured toward Peter. “You’re here just in time. Peter, get rid of those wicked things.”

“P-pardon?”

“Hurry!”

“B-but...”

“Are you refusing to obey, Peter? Do you want to be locked in the punishment room again?”

Peter trembled, then hesitantly approached the man. “I-I’m sorry.”

The boy grabbed the man’s axe, but no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn’t budge.

The priest clicked his tongue.

“Forget about the axe. Bring me the pistol.”

“Y-yes, Father.”

Peter brought the pistol to the priest. The old man checked the magazine to see it fully loaded, and a sinister smile appeared on his face.

“Take Eve with you.” The priest handed Eve’s chain to Peter, then aimed the gun at the man. “I don’t wish to take a life while serving the Lord. Be on your way now.”

A victorious smile emerged on the priest’s face.

Meanwhile, after watching the priest warily, the man realized why he had been so easily coaxed by sweet words back then.

“...!”

The man’s expression changed right then. He bent over violently and coughed, black blood staining the floor.

“Haha. The poison is finally taking effect. I was careful not to let the symptoms appear all at once.”

The man fell to his knees, drenched in cold sweat, and the priest triumphantly approached him.

“Make your choice. Do you wish to die here and now? Or do you want to live for a few more days outside?”

Another step. The priest was now two meters away from him. The man’s eyes gleamed like a wolf’s as he reached for the axe.

“How foolish of you.”

He took aim and pulled the trigger at the man's head. Click!

Instead of a gunshot, a hollow metallic sound echoed.

“What?”

The priest’s expression changed. He pulled the trigger once more.

Click click!

“There were definitely bullets in there. Why? Why?”

While the priest was astonished, the man used the axe as a crutch as he struggled to his feet.

His thoughts were conveyed to me. He’d used up all the bullets when he first met Eve and killed her zombie parents. What the priest saw was a piece of wood carved into the shape of a bullet, painted to make it seem real.

“There’s only one real bullet left.” The man pointed to the one hanging around his neck.

Regardless, it wasn’t his bullet to use.

The glint of the priest’s cross contrasted sharply in intensity with the man’s bullet.

The man brandished his axe.

“S-stay away! E-Eve! Bring her here!”

The priest tried to run toward Eve, but the man wouldn’t let him go. He swung the axe down.

Clang! Thud!

The axe severed the priest’s arm that was holding the pistol. Bright red blood spurted like a fountain.

“Aaaaargh!” the man screamed, trying to kill the priest as he fled from the bomb shelter. “Stop... Cough!”

Just then, he vomited a torrent of black blood and lost consciousness right there.

***

Peter tearfully gazed at the man. “Uncle. Are you really leaving?”

“Don’t worry. That old lunatic won’t survive. Even if he weren’t injured, the zombies would be driven mad by the smell of blood. They’d make quick work of him.”

Then, he glanced at Eve, who stood among the children, before gently patting Peter’s head.

“I’ll leave Eve in your care.”

That was the first time he had ever smiled. The man left Eden and Eve behind.

I followed the man. Though I was a ghostly existence without any influence in this world, I wanted to witness his final moments.

“Cough cough!”

With a face black as death, he coughed a mix of blood and phlegm. His gait was unsteady, about to collapse at any moment. The man knew he didn’t have much time left.

Clutching his last bullet, he muttered, “Wait for me. I’ll be with you soon.”

He walked in the day, and hid in the caves or buildings when night fell, holding his breath. Zombies would appear at times, and the man would use his last ounce of strength to smash their skulls.

A day passed, and another day came. And another.

With almost no time left, the man finally reached his destination. His own house. He dragged himself to the basement, which was locked tight. Rummaging through his pockets, he fished out a key.

Click—creaaaak.

After some struggle, the rusty lock gave way, and the basement door swung open for the first time. A terrible stench filled the air, but the man ignored it and stepped inside. He lit a lantern and held it toward a corner, revealing chains embedded in the wall, binding a female zombie in place.

Responding to the man’s scent, the zombie rose to its feet.

"Sorry to keep you waiting so long, Honey."

Ultimately, he couldn’t kill her and fled. How he regretted it. He should’ve laid his beloved wife to rest. That was the only thing left for him to do. He removed the bullet hanging around his neck, loading it into the pistol.

“I’m sorry, Honey.”

-Wooo...

Clack clack!

The zombie lunged for him, but the chains held it back. He aimed the gun at the zombie’s head.

“You’ve suffered for far too long. I’ll put you out of your misery.” His trembling fingers moved to the trigger. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right behind you.”

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he winced in pain. Wide-eyed, he shone the lantern at his feet. A child was crawling on the floor, her guts spilling out. His deceased daughter.

She was clinging to the man’s leg, gnawing at his flesh.

“Ma...rie?” the man called out his daughter’s name, choking.

He lost balance and toppled forward.

-Kyak! 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Then, his wife’s teeth sank into his shoulders.

***

After chaining himself, the man laid there, gasping for breath. Would it be quicker to die from poison, or turn into a zombie?

Beside him lay the corpses of a female zombie with her skull split open, and a child. A faint smile touched his lips. After all this time, their family was finally together again.

“Should’ve done it from the start.” He picked up the fallen pistol with his remaining hand. “Haha. so the last bullet was mine after all.”

Mocking himself, he closed his eyes. The cold muzzle rested at his temple.

Clink.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he heard something.

The familiar sound of chains dragging across the floor. The man opened his feverish eyes, catching sight of a figure descending into the basement.

It was Eve. Why was Eve here and not at the bomb shelter?

He must be hallucinating. The man parted his parched lips, but his tongue had hardened, nearly impossible to move.

“I’m. So. Ry.” That was all he could manage.

Eve stared at the chained man with her emerald eyes.

C’mon now. Don’t look at me like that. I’ll die soon, just the way you want.

The man smiled faintly, reaching for the pistol’s trigger.

At that moment, a shadow creeped up behind Eve.

It was a one-armed old man, dressed in a tattered priest’s robe with a faded cross hanging from his neck. His eyes had melted away, leaving empty, dark sockets. He showed typical symptoms of zombie infection. The victims’ eyes would melt away like the priest’s. Even his own were feeling feverish now.

The man was torn. Was Eve really here? Considering she was extra sensitive to zombies, wouldn’t she have screamed or run away? Hence, he must be seeing things. He couldn’t waste his last bullet on such hallucinations!

-Kyaaa!

The priest opened his mouth, heading for Eve’s head. The man made an unconscious choice.

Bang!

~

Eve stared blankly at the man; he was no longer the person she once knew. Groaning, his eyes melted into the darkness. A draft blew into the basement, sweeping over the scar on her forehead. She stared at the man for a long time.

The next day, in front of the tightly shut basement door, lay an ownerless axe and a rusty dog collar still attached to its chains.

***

Yu Il-Shin’s Side Stories

Genre: Zombie apocalypse

Title: Last Bullet

Subtitle: Blood-stained Axe and Rusty Dog Collar

The End

Back on Earth, at Buhwal University Hospital in Seoul, South Korea...

In the top-floor special ward was someone who recalled the man whom everyone else had probably forgotten about.

In a world where Hunters once existed, she was called Lee Mi-Rae, or Miracle.

The white-haired lady gazed at the final page of the book she had received from Sa-Shin, the incarnation of God of Creator, before her fate was altered...

“Are you really going to end it like this?” she asked. “Mr. Yu Il-Shin.”

And in response, words were etched on the empty page.

No.