Walking Daddy

Some of them were stage-one mutants, and the rest were ordinary street zombies. When I was just about done dealing with the zombies from Achasan, I heard gunfire coming from the Han River.

My first thought was that the survivors of Gangnam had opened fire on our shelter guards.

I ordered my underlings to wrap up and dashed toward the docks.

“Fire!!”

A series of loud cracks filled the air after the man yelled his command. Dozens of bullets flew toward the zombies, ripping through their bodies. They were shooting at the zombies streaming in from Guri City, at the northern end of Achasan-ro.

The howls of tens of thousands—perhaps even hundreds of thousands—of zombies had drawn attention to us, and even the zombies in Guri-si were making their way to Gwangjang-dong.

The survivors of Gangnam were taking care of the zombies that were coming at us from behind so that we could focus on the zombies in front of us.

‘Do they actually want to live together with us?’

Lee Jeong-Uk hadn’t even let them disembark yet.

Our fate—whether we got wiped out or not—had nothing to do with the survivors of Gangnam. But nonetheless, they were supporting us… I wondered if this was their way of expressing that they wanted to stay here with us.

My eyes met with those of a man on the second deck of the cruise ship. He seemed to be in his mid to late forties with the insignia of a major on his shoulder. He looked straight at me for a moment, then gave a slight nod.

Unlike his face, which was carved from stone, his eyes seemed gentle.

Even without speaking to him, I knew that he was the leader of Gangnam.

After that unexpected exchange of greetings, I headed to the rooftop of the building on the left. I looked over toward the border of Gwangjang-dong in the distance and saw Kim Hyeong-Jun as a tiny dot. He was popping up here and there like a fly, constantly flitting around as he slaughtered the zombies that crowded the streets.

Since Kim Hyeong-Jun didn’t feel any physical fatigue, I knew he wouldn’t stop his massacre unless his body suffered significant damage.

Victory was on our side.

Kim Hyeong-Jun’s underlings were spread left and right, pushing the zombies out of Gwangjang-dong. We had almost taken care of the zombies coming from Acahsan as well, and the zombie wave was slowly coming to an end.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Just then, gunfire erupted at the entrance to the hotel.

I whipped my gaze toward the sound and saw dozens of guards firing toward the hotel. The veins in my forehead almost popped.

“Stop shooting!!” I yelled with all my might.

I couldn’t understand why they were firing toward the hotel. I couldn’t help but think that they had gone insane.

The survivors—our families—were inside.

One mistake could lead to the death of our survivors.

Hwang Ji-Hye, who belatedly noticed their actions, yelled at the guards to stop as well.

“Cease fire! Cease fire!”

The guards seemed as stumped as me and Hwang Ji-Hye.

Why in the world had they started shooting toward the hotel? Were Lee Jeong-Uk and Park Gi-Cheol just standing there watching while the guards fired away?

I scanned the barricade, and saw that neither Lee Jeong-Uk nor Park Gi-Cheol were there. The two of them had somehow disappeared in a situation like this.

Clink, clank–

A series of unpleasant metallic noises disturbed my eardrums. As I looked about, trying to find the source of the sound, I saw a stage-one mutant climbing up the hotel walls.

The guards hadn’t been firing into the hotel, but at the stage-one mutant that was scaling the hotel wall. However, some of them had been off the mark, and ended up hitting the hotel windows instead.

The mutant was already on the seventeenth floor. My blood boiled as I watched it make its way up.

My people were there. My daughter.

\'So-Yeon.\'

Without the slightest hesitation, I sprinted for the hotel.

* * *

“What floor are you on?!”

- Tenth… tenth floor right now!

Lee Jeong-Uk desperately made his way up the stairs as he spoke to Hwang Ji-Hye through his walkie-talkie. Park Gi-Cheol trailed behind him, breathing heavily.

‘Fuck, fuck, fuck!!!’

Lee Jeong-Uk gritted his teeth and furrowed his brow.

By the eighth floor, his thighs felt like they were about to burst at any moment, and by the ninth floor, he could feel his heartbeat growing irregular. By the eleventh floor, his eyes began to tremble, and by the twelfth floor, he began to feel slightly woozy.

Nevertheless… He couldn’t stop.

If the mutant made its way to the fifteenth and seventeenth floors, it would be a total disaster.

If the survivors here were attacked by the mutant… There was no way he could face Kim Hyeong-Jun and Lee Hyun-Deok when they returned from their fight with the zombies outside.

Lee Jeong-Uk continued his ascent, his mind awash with thoughts. Hwang Ji-Hye’s voice broke the silence.

- It’s reached the seventeenth floor! It’s broken through the window and is about halfway in!!!

The mutant… It had already made it to the seventeenth floor.

Lee Jeong-Uk and Park Gi-Cheol were still on the thirteenth floor, and their bodies were already at their physical limits. But the mutant didn’t care about them. It had one thing to do: hunt down prey.

Lee Jeong-Uk ran up the stairs with all his strength.

When the two of them finally reached the seventeenth floor, he noticed the door leading to the suite dangling from its hinges. At the sight of the damaged door, the remaining strength in his legs drained away.

He knelt down on the floor, staring blankly at the broken door.

“No, no, no…”

He didn’t dare move any closer. He did not wish to face the horrific scene that would greet him inside the suite with his own eyes. To him, Lee Jeong-Hyuk and Choi Da-Hye’s wedding seemed like it had been just the day before.

“Mr. Lee Jeong-Uk, Mr. Lee Jeong-Uk!”

Park Gi-Cheol called his name repeatedly, but he didn’t move a single inch. It was almost as if he had lost his mind. Park Gi-Cheol frowned and grabbed his collar.

“Get up!!”

“...”

Lee Jeong-Uk heard Park Gi-Cheol’s call and managed to come to his senses. He pushed through his weakened muscles and mind and got up.

‘I have to check, even if they’re dead.’

Lee Jeong-Uk widened his eyes and desperately raised the gun he had put down earlier. The two of them entered the suite. The biting wind howling through the broken window pane felt and sounded like a ghost rushing through the room.

KIAAA!!!

Through the howling of the wind, they heard the mutant’s cry. But to their surprise, the scene unfolding before their eyes was totally different from what they’d imagined.

There were two mutants tangled up with each other, engaging in a bloody battle. Lee Jeong-Hyuk, Choi Da-Hye, and Han Seon-Hui were desperately evacuating the children.

As the mutants fought in the center of the living room, they were hiding the children away in the master bedroom, which was adjacent to the living room.

Lee Jeong-Uk pointed his gun at the mutants, his face a mask of confusion. Park Gi-Cheol, who had caught up, reacted in the same way.

“Which one… which one should we shoot?”

“...”

Lee Jeong-Uk was as clueless as Park Gi-Cheol. He had no idea why there were two mutants here, and why the two of them were fighting. He was certain that he had only seen one mutant climb up the walls. He wondered if the two of them were fighting over their prey.

Han Seon-Hui’s scream broke through his thoughts.

“Shoot the zombie on top!!”

The battle between the two monsters was almost over. One of them was already lying flat on the ground, trying desperately to fight back, while the other one was straddling the one on the ground and biting it mercilessly.

Lee Jeong-Uk pulled his trigger without the slightest hesitation.

Rat-tat-tat-tat!!!

There was no need for Lee Jeong-Uk to use the semi-automatic mode when the enemy was this close. He knew just how strong the bones of stage-one mutants were. He emptied the clip into the zombie.

He and Park Gi-Cheol pumped all their bullets into the mutant’s skull. The mutant’s head exploded before it could even let out a death cry.

The acrid smell of gunpowder wafted along the wind and tickled Lee Jeong-Uk’s nose. When he lowered his gun and looked at the mutant, it was dead still.

Kia…

The mutant next to the dead one seemed worn out. As Lee Jeong-Uk examined it more closely, he realized that ‘worn out’ was the wrong way of describing it. It was more accurate to say that it was dying.

Lee Jeong-Uk belatedly noticed blue markings on the mutant\'s body. He hadn’t even noticed the blue spray paint on its body earlier on, because of all the blood from the battle.

It was one of Lee Hyun-Deok’s underlings.

* * *

“So-Yeon!”

I made it to the seventeenth floor in one leap.

To my surprise, I didn’t see the mutant I was looking for. Instead, I saw Lee Jeong-Uk and Park Gi-Cheol there, covered head-to-toe in dark red blood.

I looked at Lee Jeong-Uk.

“Where… Where’s So-Yeon?” I asked.

“She’s in…”

I barged into the master bedroom before Lee Jeong-Uk could finish. Inside, I saw Lee Jeong-Hyuk, Choi Da-Hye and Han Seon-Hui, along with all the children. So-Yeon was with the other children, her eyes tightly closed.

Everything in front of me became a blur. My hearing seemed to fade away, and the world was turning yellow. It felt like the world was quaking while time stood still.

An intense feeling of relief flooded through me, draining away my energy. I fell to my knees and called out to So-Yeon in a gentle voice.

“So-Yeon.”

“...”

So-Yeon slowly opened her tightly-closed eyes and looked over. When she saw my face, her frown instantly turned into a smile.

“Daddy! Daddy!!”

“So-Yeon.”

She dashed toward me, crying. As she approached, I opened my arms, and she fell into my embrace.

My breathing grew heavy. Her warmth flowed into my heart, and it felt like time started to flow again.

‘Thank you, God. Thank you so much!’

I instinctively offered my thanks to God. This time, it had been much too close.

If Lee Jeong-Uk and Park Gi-Cheol hadn\'t ran all the way up to the seventeenth floor… Something awful—something that I didn’t want to imagine—would have happened.

Realizing that her life was no longer at risk, I carefully examined her from head to toe.

"Sweetheart, are you okay? Did my daughter get hurt anywhere?”

"I\'m fine! But Auntie Zombie’s injured.”

“What?”

Auntie Zombie?

I knew she wasn’t talking about Choi Da-Hye or Han Seon-Hui. So who in the world was she talking about?

As I looked at her in confusion, So-Yeon ran into the living room, wiping the tears from her eyes. I followed her back into the living room and saw two mutants lying helplessly on the ground.

One of them was the mutant that had climbed up the hotel. The other was the stage-one mutant I had appointed as the mutant leader.

I wondered why the mutant leader was here.

I looked over at Lee Jeong-Uk, my expression demanding an explanation. He shrugged at me.

"I have no clue why it’s here either. When we got here, the two of them were fighting.”

I went over the orders I’d given to my underlings earlier on, and realized why the mutant leader was here.

- Take care of the zombies around the hotel. Mutant leader, protect the survivors from inside the hotel.

The mutant leader… it had been at the hotel from the beginning. Even before the wild mutant had climbed up the hotel, the mutant leader had been in the hotel, protecting the survivors.

Lee Jeong-Hyuk came out into the living room.

“That mutant saved us,” he said.

“What?”

“Everyone grew nervous when we heard the gunfire… Then suddenly that mutant broke the door and entered.”

“That mutant broke the door?”

“Yes, I think it was following the mutant that was climbing up the hotel wall. I think it broke the door because it didn’t know how to open it.”

I looked closely at the mutant leader. It was breathing heavily and staring at So-Yeon, who was next to me. It croaked out a phrase in a hoarse, dry whisper.

“Mom…my… is… here…”

Its voice filled me with sadness. My heart ached.

I wondered how much this mutant regretted not being able to save her own child while she’d been alive. All she could think about was saving a child, even when she was on the verge of death… I knew exactly how she felt.

Because I was no different.

In contrast to its hollow eyes, which were devoid of emotion, its voice was full of sadness.

It reminded me of the first time I’d seen it, at Children\'s Grand Park. It had saved the child who had been trapped in the tent, and had said the same exact words. And as it held the boy in its arms, it had even flashed a gentle smile that I’d never seen before.

The memory faded, and I saw the mutant in front of me again.

‘Thanks… For everything.’

Its limbs were already torn to shreds, and dark red blood was oozing out from its stomach, chest, and even the nape of its neck. It had taken too much damage, and would not be able to recover even if it ate other zombies.

It might have had a chance if it was a stage-two mutant, but a stage-one mutant did not have the ability to fully regenerate its limbs.

It was time to set the mutant leader free from its duties.

"Auntie!"

At that moment, So-Yeon ran toward the mutant. My eyes went wide, and I hurriedly grabbed onto her upper body.

I had no clue what would happen if a human being got into contact with its blood. And if its blood got into So-Yeon’s mouth or eyes, I knew there was no turning back.

“Let go, let go! Let go of me!”

“So-Yeon…”

“Let go of me!”

So-Yeon tried to bite my hand.

I was a zombie too.

If all zombie blood was potentially dangerous, that included my blood as well.

I quickly took my hand away. Without the slightest hesitation, So-Yeon reached out and held onto the mutant leader’s hand.