Walking Daddy

The enemy leader was basically asking to be killed by revealing himself to be one of the lieutenants. Of course, I was still considering killing him, whether he was a lieutenant or not.

The enemy leader led us to Hwabuk Industrial Complex, and I could immediately sense the presence of other beings in the building a hundred meters in front of us. I could hear footsteps as well as the cries of zombies. The world we were in was surprisingly quiet, and so the smallest and tiniest sounds could be detected across long distances.

While the two of us had our eyes on the complex, the enemy leader, who had regenerated both arms, took small, quiet steps backward.

“So um… Can I go now?” he asked.

Kim Hyeong-Jun frowned.

"Where are you going?” he asked. “You need to tell us where the boss is.”

The enemy leader’s jaw quivered.

“Every—everyone should be in the building over there,” he replied. “Then, if I may…”

“Are you breaking your promise right now? Don’t tell me you’re breaking your promise right now.”

"Pardon? I-I kept my promise! I led you two all the way here!”

“I told you to lead me to where the boss is; when did I ask you to stop after leading me here?”

“Oh, no, no. I’ll really, really die if I do that! If hyung-nim finds out, I’m dead meat for sure!”

Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his sideburns and looked over at me.

“What do you think we should do, ahjussi?”

“You know, you can be really evil sometimes.”

"Me? How?"

I grimaced. “I feel bad for that guy. You know, you could just kill him so that he can rest in peace.”

The enemy leader’s face turned blue. He knew I’d just proclaimed that he should die immediately, so that we could be on our way without wasting any more time.

I looked him in the eye.

“I’m sorry, but your life ends here. Live your next life well.”

The enemy leader grabbed Kim Hyeong-Jun by the collar.

“Hey, hey! You fucking bastard! You said you’d spare me!”

I wondered if he realized that hitting Kim Hyeong-Jun would do absolutely nothing. He began to curse and hurl vulgarities, but it was no use. After the enemy leader stopped screaming, Kim Hyeong-Jun grimaced.

“I’m sorry, but I’m sure you understand that when you get orders from above, the people below follow. I hope that rings a bell.”

“You fucking bastards!”

The enemy leader shoved Kim Hyeong-Jun aside, his eyes bulging out of their sockets. He turned toward the North Hwabuk Industrial Complex.

"Hyung-nim! Run away!” he yelled.

Kim Hyeong-Jun closed the distance between himself and the enemy leader.

“Yeah, nope. No one’s getting away.”

He silenced him by breaking his neck. At the same time, I gritted my teeth as steam rose from my body.

“GAAA!”

My blue eyes flashed as I accelerated my blood circulation. The muscle fibers all over my body contracted tightly like Venom’s.[1]

In moments, two red-eyed zombies came out from Hwabuk Industrial Complex, escorted by some zombies. They’d probably been drawn out by the enemy leader’s scream, and had come out to investigate. This was good news for us.

Bang!!

I launched myself from the ground and crashed toward them like a roaring wave. The officers of the Northeast Gang quickly hid themselves behind their underlings. I assumed they knew about the black creature, and that the black creature had blue eyes. Just as Kim Dae-Young had been surprised after noticing my eyes, I figured these enemies would also be surprised, and that they would figure out their fate sooner or later.

Their fate that seeing a pair of blue eyes meant death.

I locked my eyes on the back of the escaping enemy leader’s head and pushed my way through the zombies like a bulldozer.

“You fucking monster!” came a voice from my right.

I quickly turned, my blue eyes flashing. A red-eyed zombie had thrown a fist at me. But this zombie was too slow. So slow, in fact, that I almost yawned.

I shifted, pivoting on my left foot and slipping close to the approaching zombie, and punched him in the solar plexus.

Crack!

I could feel his ribs shatter beneath my fist. My punch made its way deeper into his flesh, boring a hole through his body and eventually reaching his spine. I grabbed his spine without the slightest hesitation and pulled it out as hard as I could.

My eyes bore witness to this cruel and terrifying sight. The smell of iron filled my nose. At that moment, I wondered if I could still consider myself as someone who still possessed a shred of humanity. But I knew one thing for sure; there was no going back for me, nor could I go back. I had already made up my mind that I would become a monster, if that were what it took to ensure the safety of the Survivor Rally Organization.

A long shadow fell over me, blocking the moonlight for a second. Kim Hyeong-Jun had leaped over the zombies that were blocking the road, angling straight for the boss of the Northeast Gang. I swung the spine in my hand like a whip to keep the zombies around me from getting closer as I glanced down at the ground and stomped on the enemy leader’s neck.

With that, the red light in its eyes disappeared, and the zombies around me stopped moving at once, like robots that had suddenly lost power. Right after that, the underlings of the Northeast Gang’s boss also stopped as well. When I looked over at where Kim Hyeong-Jun had gone, I saw him walking toward me with the head of the boss of the Northeast Gang in his hands.

Once he got closer, he blew his nose.

“I guess that’s it?” he asked.

I looked around and nodded slowly. I turned my gaze to the sun rising in the distance.

“Let’s go back.”

* * *

When we got back to Hotel L, the members of the Survivor Rally Organization had already begun their day, helping out the people of the Jeju Defense Unit to discharge their respective duties in their respective areas.

The moment he saw us, Lee Jeong-Uk put down the documents he was looking at and came running over to me and Kim Hyeong-Jun.

“Did you spend all night cleaning up the hotel?”

“No. We cleaned up Jeju City.”

"Huh?"

“We cleaned up the Northwest and Northeast Gangs.”

Lee Jeong-Uk’s eyes went wide, and he gave us a dumbfounded expression. Then Kim Hyeong-Jun smiled and showed him the heads of the enemy leaders. Lee Jeong-Uk’s mouth fell open, and he was silent for a while. After a moment, he pulled himself together and desperately called for Heo Seong-Min, who was at the entrance of Hotel L. Heo Seong-Min, who was busy assigning people to their respective groups, immediately stopped what he was doing and ran over.

As he was catching his breath, he noticed the heads that Kim Hyeong-Jun was holding, and he looked at us in disbelief.

“Is that head perhaps…?”

"Yeah, it’s what you’re thinking. These are the heads of the Northeast Gang boss and his lieutenants.”

Heo Seong-Min swallowed as he stared at the heads of the enemy leaders again in disbelief. It seemed like he knew their faces.

“Yes, yes, it’s them!” he stammered in shock. “These bastards, it was these bastards! These are the ones we saw in Songnanpo-gu.”

“I guess we got the right ones then.”

"What exactly happened last night…?”

“All of you here can continue living like nothing happened,” I said calmly, reluctant to share the details. “Leave the zombies\' problems to the zombies.”

I gave a small nod and headed to the hotel lobby. Heo Seong-Min was still standing where he was, in shock. Lee Jeong-Uk placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Leave the zombies to him,” he said. “Let’s do whatever we can do to help.”

“Ah. Yes!”

The two returned to their original tasks, trying their best to hold back their excitement. They could sense that a bright future was just within their grasp.

As I entered the lobby of Hotel L, I checked on how Do Han-Sol and Jeong Jin-Young were doing. However, neither of them showed any signs of regaining consciousness just yet. Of course, the amount of time they’d be sleeping depended on the strength they possessed and the type of brains they had eaten. I knew it would take Jeong Jin-Young a while, and since Do Han-Sol ate four at once, I assumed that we’d have to wait at least another day for him to wake up.

Kim Hyeon-Jun checked on them as well, then approached me

“What should we do, ahjussi?” he asked. “If we fall asleep, there won’t be anyone to defend the survivors.”

“We have Mr. Kim Dae-Young.”

“We do… but… What if the black creature comes while we’re asleep? Right now, we’re just assuming that the black creature went to Seogwipo. We both know that that might not be the case.”

I couldn’t help but sigh. I wasn’t sure what to do. I couldn’t let the enemy leader’s head go to waste, but at the same time, I didn’t feel comfortable eating it.

At that moment, I suddenly remembered the method Hwang Deok-Rok and Choi Soo-Hyun had employed in the past. When I came across them at the Konkuk University Station, they had covered themselves with perfume. The smell of perfume was effective in keeping the zombies away, which allowed them to mask their presence from the zombies temporarily.

As soon as I organized my thoughts, I went over to Hwang Deok-Rok and Choi Soo-Hyun. The two of them were checking the supplies with Park Gi-Cheol.

“Mr. Hwang Deok-Rok.”

Hwang Deok-Rok put down the papers he was holding and looked back at me.

“Ah, Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok. Did you want to ask me something?”

He seemed busy, so I went straight to the point.

“Do you happen to have any perfume left?”

Hwang Deok-Rok tilted his head.

“Perfume?” he answered quickly. “Hmm, I’m not sure. I don’t remember having any of it the last time we moved.”

“You don’t happen to have any? You didn’t see any when you checked the supplies?”

“Unfortunately, I didn’t. If I remember correctly, we were already out of perfume when we got together with Shelter Silence.”

I sighed and nodded. I wondered if I should head to Jeju City to find a perfume shop, or if it would be better to head back to Jeju Airport and check the duty-free stores. At the same time, though, I wondered how long the perfume would last if I sprayed it all over the hotel. On top of that, it was also dangerous for the survivors to go outside every hour to spray perfume.

After examining it thoroughly, the only conclusion I could come to was that using perfume would not be that helpful for this many people, and that it was only useful when a small number of people wanted to move stealthily.

I knew I had to think of some other way… But at that moment, I just couldn’t think of one. As I was lost in thought, I heard Kim Hyeong-Jun speak up.

"Ahjussi."

"What?"

“You should eat all of them, ahjussi.”

"No, that’s not an option.”

I answered without the slightest hesitation. I knew it had been quite a while since he’d eaten any brains. This meant that he might lose control over his zombie instincts at any time. It felt like we could hold on longer when we had red eyes, but after our eyes turned blue, the duration seemed to have gotten shorter. The stronger we became, the more zombie-like we became, and the human side of us was whittling away, little by little.

Kim Hyeong-Jun grimaced and thought for a brief moment before speaking again.

“Well, even if you eat all three of them, you’ll wake up in a day, ahjussi. In fact, it might not even take a day for you.”

"No. And if that\'s the case, I think I’d rather you eat them."

“I’m okay, ahjussi. Don’t you trust me? Even if the black creature comes, as long as I have Mood-Swinger and Ji-Eun, I’ll be able to last for at least an hour or two. Besides, I can eat the brains of the ones in Seogwipo.”

“What if the black creature had already eaten the ones in Seogwipo?”

As we traded hypotheticals, Kim Dae-Young, who had been listening in quietly, came up to us. He hesitated a little, scratching his sideburns, but he eventually spoke up.

"Sorry to bother you two… But I’ve been listening to what the two of you have been saying.”

“...”

“I’ll do my best to guard this place. Trust me, and go ahead and eat the brains.”

“We can’t deal with this black creature,” I said in a serious tone. “And if its eyes have turned black…. It would mean instant death on contact.”

Kim Dae-Young grimaced. “Well, I don’t think there’s any other way. If the black creature shows up, I\'ll make sure to drag out the fight, even if that costs me my life. I want you two to eat the brains.”

I stared at his face as I contemplated what he was saying. He was being naive, because he had never experienced how overwhelming the black creature was. I couldn’t forget the way it moved, hiding in the dark and hunting down its prey. It was truly traumatic.

In addition, even when Kim Hyeong-Jun and I had fought it together, we were still no match for it. It was superior in every aspect; mobility, power, and stamina.

As I continued to ponder the matter, Kim Hyeong-Jun slapped me on the back. When I looked at him in surprise, he smiled.

“Ahjussi, sometimes if you can’t come up with an answer, the right thing is to take action,” he said.

“...”

“And besides, Kim Dae-Young is one of us now. Wouldn’t it be better to eat the brains quickly and regain our consciousness more quickly, rather than waste time like this?”

I couldn’t help but sigh because I knew he was right. The Survivor Rally Organization had made it this far by taking action first when we didn’t have a suitable plan. Perhaps we’d be able to come up with a plan later down the road.

With that, I slicked my hair back and looked out the window. In the distance, the morning sun was peeking over the horizon. As I watched the sunrise, I felt reassured to go along with his plan, since the black creature had never shown up in broad daylight before.

I nodded.

“You eat the brain of the boss of the Northeast Gang,” I said.

“Okay, then you eat the remaining two, ahjussi.”

“You’ll wake up first. When you wake up, don’t make any hasty moves, but work on defense. If the black creature appears, don\'t fight it. Just work with Mood-Swinger to distract it.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun nodded and handed me two heads. I looked over at Kim Dae-Young.

“Where is the tallest building around here?” I asked him.

“If we’re only considering building heights, this one is the tallest.”

“Make sure that nobody goes outside today. As for you, survey the surroundings from the top floor. Don’t go outside no matter what, since we are what the black creature wants.”

"Got it! I’ll keep that in mind.”

Kim Dae-Young nodded vigorously. With that, I headed to the pantry with Kim Hyeong-Jun. I saw a dusty coffee pot and water purifier. It seemed like the Jeju Defense Unit didn’t use the pantry. I then took a deep breath and ate the two brains in front of me.

Even if it were just a nap, I’d at least be able to sleep like a baby for the first time in a while.

1. Venom is a comic book character by Marvel Comics with superhuman powers. ☜