Walking Daddy

“Nice one, big brother! Hahaha!”

The woman tried her best to put up a fight. Such a shameless thing was happening in broad daylight on the roof of a supermarket. In a few moments, a boy emerged from a doorway that led onto the rooftop.

“Nuna!”

The boy seemed to be the woman’s younger brother. His face was thin and his arms were as thin as twigs, as if he hadn’t had anything to eat for days. Immediately, a bald man came running after the boy and caught him in a chokehold.

The two men stopped laughing, and one of them yelled at the bald man, “You bastard! Didn’t I tell you to keep an eye on him?”

“I’m sorry, but this guy made a run for it all of the sudden.”

“Are you trying to fuck with me?”

“I’ll fuck him up real good, big brother.”

“These pieces of fresh meat don’t know the right way to do things.”

As the man complained, the bald man dragged the boy back downstairs. I almost lost my mind as I watched it all unfold in front of me.

‘What did I just see?’

My mind grew so muddled that it stopped altogether. I couldn’t comprehend the unbelievable situation that was happening in front of me.

These were complete strangers to me. It wasn’t as if I’d ever crossed paths with them before. However, an indescribable feeling of rage was boiling within me, making my hands shake.

I could feel myself getting worked up. I was neither a god nor an extraordinary person who rescued others from their despair. Of course I wasn’t Yama, I was just a mere zombie. [1]

However, if these pigs did something even a zombie like me wouldn\'t do, could they even be considered human?

I gritted my remaining teeth and rushed to the first floor. I started shoving any zombies that came into view.

“GRR!”

My head was about to split into two. My brain felt as if it was on the verge of exploding. My mind fell deeper and deeper into the abyss as I pushed more and more of ‘them’.

‘This is more painful than I expected. I think I might die if I keep doing this.’

However, the scene that I had just witnessed kept coming back to me. The pain I felt was nothing compared to my anger. As a father who had a child, I couldn’t ignore what had just happened. This feeling of guilt, and the need to be a hero, was driving me forward.

I had to get back to my senses. I had to bring my already-dead body back to its senses.

I slapped myself in the face and pulled at my hair to drag myself out of the abyss that I had fallen into.

I cried out at the top of my lungs as I slowly regained my rational mind. I struggled to keep a tenuous hold on my sanity as I tried to figure out how many creatures I had pushed. I counted the green creatures around me. There were twenty-eight of them.

My eyes lit up with satisfaction. I ran my eye over these new underlings, noticing that their bodies were all intact, and they all had chins. I looked at my fresh recruits, pointed to the supermarket, and gave them my first order.

‘It’s time to eat.’

They howled as one.

* * *

I lined up five underlings in front. I followed right behind them, while the rest were on my left and right, watching our surroundings. The reason I followed them was pretty straightforward. I couldn’t just order them to eat every living creature in the supermarket.

I had to sort out the victims and perpetrators for them. There was no way my underlings could do that, given their inability to think rationally. So I had to tell them which ones they should go after. As we approached the supermarket, the perpetrators didn’t take any action.

‘They probably forgot to post a guard.’

I saw a rather clumsy barricade set up inside the supermarket entrance. I ordered the five in front to get rid of the barricade.

Grr!!!

My underlings screamed at the top of their lungs and slammed their bodies against the glass door leading into the supermarket. It shattered instantly, pieces of glass piercing the bodies of my underlings. But the shattered glass fragments weren’t enough to stop my underlings.

With the door down, my underlings went for the sloppy barricade. Sharp wooden stakes dug through their stomach, chest, and arms. These weren’t small thorns. They punched large holes the size of fists through soft flesh. But this didn’t matter to beings that were numb to pain. All they did was follow my orders.

My underlings pushed against the barricade, driving forward with all the strength in their legs. In moments, the clumsy barricade began to bulge inwards, unable to withstand the pressure. Parts of it began to splinter and break, and it was difficult to tell that it used to be a barricade. The perpetrators came running, realizing the severity of the situation.

There were three men. It seemed like they were threatening the survivors. I actually didn’t care what they were up to. To me, they were nothing more than blobs of fat. They had tattoos across their chests, which screamed to me that they were gangsters.

“What the fucking shit!”

A torrent of vulgarities erupted from their mouths, but I saw a rather familiar emotion in their eyes. They were not experiencing any ordinary feeling of fear. Their minds were yelling it, their hearts were pumping it out loud.

Death.

They were witnessing what death was. I sized them up with my bloodshot eyes and followed up with a command.

‘You guys in the front, bite everything off except for their heads.’’

Grr!

My underlings sprinted toward the three gangsters, screaming at the top of their lungs. The three gangsters wailed as if their lives were flashing before their eyes. They were like herbivores being set upon by carnivores. My underlings greedily inhaled their tattooed bodies.

I ordered these underlings to feast on the gangster trio and leave any other living things alone, then headed toward the rooftop with my other underlings.

‘Hold it.’

I stopped midway up the stairs. Something wasn’t right. The gangsters on the rooftop had probably heard the commotion downstairs. I should have been able to hear their footsteps. But the rooftop was suspiciously quiet.

‘Are they getting ready to ambush me?’

Since I couldn’t take the risk, I ordered my underlings to go up first and bite the two men on top. My underlings cheerfully ran up the stairs, screeching in their throat-rending manner.

Thud!

As the one in front got closer to the top, a solid baseball bat swung out and smashed its head in. The stricken underling collapsed on the spot.

I quickly order my underlings to stop. This stairway was barely wide enough for a single person to make their way up. Even if we had a numerical advantage, we would suffer more casualties. All my underlings froze at my sudden command.

I stared at my underlings, ordering them to back away and follow me. As I slowly led my underlings downstairs, I heard the gangsters above begin to speak.

“Big brother, they’re going back down!”

“What? Why would they do that?”

“I’m not sure what’s happening either.”

Ordinary zombies would’ve gone straight for the smell of fresh meat, fighting with each other to get through the narrow stairway. But I had no intention to give them what they wanted. On my way out, I ordered five of my underlings to stay at the bottom of the stairs. Then, I went out and assessed how high the roof was. It was pretty high for a one-storey building.

Now I understood why the gangsters on top couldn’t jump down.

‘Do they think they have a chance if they fight on the rooftop?’

They probably didn’t think that we could scale the wall.

I pointed to three of my underlings. ‘Three of you, make a platform for us to stand on.’

They growled at my command, then moved to stand against the wall. However, they didn’t do anything else. It was impossible to explain what a platform was to them, so I folded each one of my underlings one by one, making their backs parallel to the ground.

‘None of you move. Stay still until we make it to the top.’

The three underlings had their heads against the wall, their buttocks pointed outward. I stood on top of them, but realized that the rooftop was still out of reach.

I got another underling into the same bent-over position on top of the three others.

‘I think this is enough. Alright, the rest, head up!’

As if they couldn’t wait any longer, the remaining underlings made their way up clambering over the four stationary ones. In moments, I heard a string of vulgarities, along with something hard being hit by a baseball bat.

At that moment, I commanded the five underlings at the bottom of the stairs to go up. Immediately, I heard growls come from the supermarket. I was the last one to clamber over my ‘staircase’ underlings and onto the rooftop.

The rooftop was clear when I got there. My underlings were chomping their way through the men. I saw a woman curled up in the corner of the rooftop, shaking violently.

Some of my underlings looked at me questioningly, wondering if she was one of the things they could chomp on. I sighed and forbade them to do so. They stopped moving instantly, becoming as still as well-sculpted stone figures.

The ones that were feasting on the men were rolling their eyes.

Grr…

My underlings were whining like dogs waiting for their owner’s command to eat.

‘Wait.’

After telling them to wait indefinitely, I made my way down to look for a blanket. Thankfully, there were blankets hung along the wall, big enough to cover a single person. I headed back to the rooftop with the cleanest-looking one in my hand.

I tossed her the blanket. She stared at me blankly with glassy eyes. I was not looking for gratitude. To her, as long as I was there with my underlings, I was no different from them.

I told my underlings to take the corpses outside and wait. Under my command, they moved in unison. Of course, I didn’t forget to tell them the most important thing.

‘Eat everything except for their heads. I have something in mind for them.’

My underlings barked back, taking the gangster’s bodies outside. The mission was a success, but there was still some unfinished business. It was time to see who had really survived.

1. Yama, also known as Kala and Dharmaraja, is a Hindu god of death and justice. He is similar to Hades in ancient Greek religion and myth. ☜