Walking Daddy

‘So it’s you. The one that attacked Majang-dong.’

‘...’

‘I knew it. I knew there was no way a human being would’ve been able to kill a dong leader.’

It seemed like they called the leader of each area a dong leader. I looked it straight in the eyes.

‘This attack on Seoul Forest. Is this revenge for Majang-dong?’

‘Revenge? You’re more naive than I thought. You have your head in the clouds or something?’

It snickered as it made fun of me. I grabbed onto its collar and slammed it to the ground as hard as I could.

‘Enough of the bullshit! Cut to the chase if you don’t want to die.’

‘HAHAHA! If I don’t want to die? Hey ahjussi, you and I are already dead!’

It was right. We were no different from the dead since we were zombies. However, as long as we had our human minds, I could torture it to the point that it would beg for death.

I broke its arms and legs without even the slightest hesitation. I thought it would beg for its life once I did so, but instead, it kept on laughing. It boggled my mind even though I was the one torturing it. It screamed while laughing like an insane person.

“You crazy son of a bitch. You’re no different, you know? You break people’s arms and legs like it\'s nothing. Hahaha!’

‘Shut it, you bastard!’

‘Hey ahjussi, you got baited.’

‘... What?’

Smash!

My earlobes stung from the impact and my vision grew hazy. The enemy leader I had kicked earlier wasn’t dead. It had gotten back up and had kicked me in the head.

Its sudden attack caused me to lose my balance, but I quickly got myself together and got into a defensive stance.

Beep—

My ears were ringing. Soon after, my legs gave way under me. It felt as though my eardrums had burst. The one that kicked me was glaring at me as it rubbed its lower belly. Its voice came to me, cutting through the constant ringing that I was hearing from its kick.

‘Oh fuck… I think my intestines are fucked up.’

‘…’

‘Hey, ahjussi, how about we stop it here? I don’t think anyone’s going to benefit from this if we keep at it.’

‘What?’

I couldn’t hear its voice clearly because of the constant ringing. It felt like there were multiple voices. I shook my head and squeezed my temples. My vision was blurry and I couldn’t feel my legs. My inner ear felt damaged.

I blinked and looked it in the face. It stared at me blankly and then chuckled as it looked down at its comrade with broken arms and legs. Without warning, it stomped on its comrade’s head. My mouth fell open.

It had killed its comrade.

I knew these gang members didn’t share a sense of camaraderie, but I wasn’t expecting it to crush its comrades\' head in front of me. It looked around and collected its comrades\' cracked heads one by one.

I wanted to stop it, but my legs weren’t moving the way I wanted them to. As the condition of my inner ear deteriorated, my lower body slowly grew paralyzed. It was difficult just for me to keep myself standing.

After it had retrieved the three skulls, it looked me in the eyes.

‘I’ll see you again.’

‘You son of a bitch…’

‘Never mind. I don’t think we will be seeing each other again.’

It chuckled and looked around. It was laughing, but its movements were nervous.

I wondered if it was waiting for someone. But no, he wasn’t behaving the way that someone waiting for someone else would behave.

Instead, it looked like it was being cautious. As I took a shuffling step toward it, it looked at me and spoke up.

‘Ahjussi, you’re going to die here.’

‘Funny. I’m not going to die because of you…’

‘Haha, not by my hand.’

‘…’

I frowned, and he slowly stepped back.

‘Ahjussi, you bit the bait.’

‘Are you saying that you baited me?’

‘Shelter Seoul Forest was a trophy from the beginning. We thought the creature that attacked Majang-dong would appear if we attacked Shelter Seoul Forest, but we didn’t actually think it would really appear.’

‘You son of a bitch…’

‘Our bosses only issued us one command: To kill the creature that killed the Majang-dong leader.’

‘…’

‘I’ve got three skulls to take back now. Thanks a lot, ahjussi.’

It vanished an instant after it was done saying what it wanted to say. I tried to follow it, but I collapsed to the floor because of my wobbly legs. I gritted my teeth and gave orders to my underlings.

‘Second company! Second company, follow it. Run it down and bring me back its head.’

GRRR!!!

Second company disappeared into the darkness, chasing after the creature. I assumed that it would have suffered injuries to its hip or thigh muscles since I’d attacked it in the abdomen. I knew I had to catch it before it got away, and before it ate its comrades\' brains to grow stronger.

The first company was taking care of the zombies that were running about like headless chickens after losing their leader. In the meantime, I hid myself in the tall grass.

I couldn’t help but swear. Out of all the body parts that could’ve been destroyed, my eardrums had popped.

Ordinary zombie attacks weren’t threatening to me. My only weaknesses were if I lost my sight or my hearing. I assumed that the gang member, knowing this, had gone after my ears.

I knew I had to wait until my eardrums recovered, instead of chasing it down right now and risking more injury. If whatever it had said was true, their main body would make their move soon.

It said the three-thousand-strong army had been bait. I wondered how large their organization was. Whoever was at the top of the organization might not be someone I could consider taking down.

‘Damn it!’

I pounded the ground in frustration. As I stared at the holes in the ground, my fists trembled.

I wondered how much stronger I had to become.

It seemed like whatever strength I gained only served to show me how weak I really was.

Thud, thud, thud.

After a moment, the ground started to rumble.

Even though I couldn’t hear properly because of the constant ringing in my mind, the slight trembling caused all my senses to perk up. I lifted my head slightly and looked in the direction of the vibration. A red tsunami was sweeping down toward me.

The main body was making its way toward where I was.

* * *

GARRR!!!

Violent howls filled the air. The zombies were making their way here with the sole objective of getting here as quickly as possible. They were like bulls in a china shop, like wild animals gone insane. They were relying solely on their instincts to get to where I was.

Their physical capabilities seemed different from the zombies I had come across up to that point. The underlings were running almost at the same pace as the red zombies that were sent as bait. But they were just underlings.

My underlings took care of baits easily now, but they weren’t as threatening as these zombies, and I couldn’t ignore the sheer number of them coming this way. I couldn’t count them out exactly as they were running in blocks. I assumed there were around a thousand or even twelve hundred of them. But I was certain of one thing. There were more of them than the number of underlings I had brought over.

And judging by their physical capabilities, I was certain that there was just one leader controlling all of them. I could tell that the enemy leader was on the same level as me or possibly stronger than me. A predator.

As I watched the wave of red rolling toward me, I asked myself,

‘Am I afraid?’

No.

‘Am I scared?’

Also a no.

The incident in Majang-dong was something I had started, and it was something I had to put an end to. I wouldn’t have started anything if I wasn’t willing to take responsibility for it.

Of course, I didn’t have any intentions in dying here. I had looked So-Yeon in the eyes and made a promise, that I would be back after taking care of work.

Pshhh—

My body began to heat up.

“Kaa…”

My blood started to warm, and began flowing faster. The constant ringing started to fade away, and the muscles in my body started tightening up again. My blurry vision went away, and the red glow in my eyes intensified. My quivering body finally came back to its senses. I had recovered.

I got up and looked over at my first company.

‘Everyone’s still good to go, right?’

GRRR!! KAAA!!!!

The first company was done taking care of the red zombies. Their dead bodies were scattered across the ground. My underlings sent throat-rending cries toward the enemy’s main body as if they were still fired up from their battle.

My underlings weren’t howling because they were nervous or afraid. Instead, their cries signaled that they wanted to kill and fight some more. I let out a quick breath and gave them an order.

‘Let’s get this over with.’

GRR!!!!

* * *

The interior of Shelter Seoul Forest started to rattle. People started whispering amongst themselves. They were having a hard time seeing what was going on. It was no different for the guard leader.

Zombie cries rang out in front of the second defense line, and from every wall around the shelter. But these weren’t cries of zombies trying to get inside.

Instead, they were cries being made by the zombies that were colored entirely blue. They were fighting fiercely with the other zombies, clawing and biting at them as the other zombies fought back.

The guard leader assessed the overall situation and bit their lower lip. After a moment, the guard leader yelled, “Fire!”

“Shoot? Shoot who?”

“What do you mean? Zombies are our enemies!”

Under the guard leader’s orders, the survivors that were holding the second defense line started firing at the zombies in front of the defense line.

“Stop!”

That moment, a man with a desperate voice came running toward them. The guard leader looked at him, their eyes wide.

“Gi-Cheol ahjussi? What’d you come all the way here? What about the dogs?”

“The dogs have retreated. I’m not sure why, but it seems like they’re retreating right now.”

“How about the zombies on the other side of the wall?”

“They suddenly became dumb. They stopped moving.”

“Huh?”

The guard leader interrogated Park Gi-Cheol about what he meant, and Park Gi-Cheol scratched his head.

“I don’t know either. But it seems like there’s something going on with the zombies that we’re not aware of.”

“Wait, what in the world…”

“I need to speak with the group leader. Where is she?”

“I think the group leader is checking the rafts.”

“I’ll go talk to her. Until then, stop shooting.”

“Huh? What do you mean, stop shooting? There are zombies right in our faces!”

“How much ammunition do you have left?”

The guard leader didn’t answer Park Gi-Cheol’s question. Park Gi-Cheol pointed his finger at the guard leader and said in a serious tone, “Don’t shoot.”

“I’m in charge of the guards!”

“Then you should be more rational than ever. You don’t have enough bullets, and there are more of them out there. The ones here are totally different from the zombies we’ve faced before. Look at their movements. And you’re telling me you’re just going to shoot when the blue-colored zombies are keeping them away from us?”

Park Gi-Cheol frowned, and the guard leader shut their mouth, their clenched fists trembling.

The survivors that were holding the second defense line had expressions that seemed to agree with Park Gi-Cheol. The guard leader clicked their tongue and swept their gaze over the survivors. All of them were looking at Park Gi-Cheol and the guard leader nervously.

None of the survivors had anything left in their vest pockets. They had already used the two magazines they’d been given, and there were tens, even hundreds of bullet casings on the floor.

The guard leader bit their lip and ordered,

“Everyone, save your bullets! Don’t attack first. Only shoot the ones that approach us!”

“Yes sir!”

The guard members moved in unison. They strapped rifles to their backs and took out Molotov cocktails or wielded bamboo spears.

The guard leader glared at Park Gi-Cheol.

“If things go south from here, you’ll be responsible, Gi-Cheol ahjussi.”

“Ha! Okay,” Park Gi-Cheol scoffed, then ran toward the river.

* * *

When Park Gi-Cheol got to the river bank, he encountered some survivors that were fighting the ‘dogs’ that hadn’t been able to get away.

Some of the rafts had been set ablaze by the dogs, and the remaining rafts weren’t in good shape either. A distance away, he saw the group leader, who was trying to protect the remaining rafts.

Park Gi-Cheol pierced his bamboo spear through one of the ‘dogs’ and ran toward the group leader.

“Group leader ahgassi!”

“Gi-Cheol ahjussi!”

The guard leader brandished her hunting knife, keeping the ‘dogs’ from getting close to her. Park Gi-Cheol helped the guard leader clean up the remaining ‘dogs’ and yelled in a desperate voice, “We have support!”

“What did you say?”

The group leader frowned and stared at Park Gi-Cheol. She knew that they didn’t have any allies. She wondered what Park Gi-Cheol meant by support.

The group leader subconsciously looked out into the Han River.

Park Gi-Cheol couldn’t help but wonder why she was looking out toward Han River when he said there was support. He was suspicious, but he knew it wasn’t the time to ask her about that. There was something more important at stake.

After a moment, the group leader asked Park Gi-Cheol,

“You mentioned support? What do you mean by that?”

“They’re zombies.”

“Huh…???”

“The support we have are zombies.”

The group leader looked at Park Gi-Cheol, confusion written all over her face. She had no clue what Park Gi-Cheol was saying. She saw the shelter burning with her own eyes.

This was the biggest attack they had suffered since the shelter was founded. They’ve done so well to this point.

The group leader tugged her hair as she took in the devastation that was laid before her. Park Gi-Cheol grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her.

“Wake up, wake up!”

“Ha…”

“You have to be the one standing strong. You have to get yourself together to save everyone!”

As Park Gi-Cheol yelled at her, her eyes slowly regained the vitality they had momentarily lost. After pulling herself together, she calmed her voice and began questioning Park Gi-Cheol.