Walking Daddy

Jeong Jin-Young didn’t let his chance slip away. He bit his lips and punched the mutant.

Pow!!

His fist connected squarely with the mutant’s temple. However, some of the bullets fired by the guards raked down his left arm and side.

The guards’ eyes went wide.

“Are… are you okay?!” they yelled down at Jeong Jin-Young

Jeong Jin-Young didn’t answer, kicking the mutant in the head instead. He kept kicking it until it was almost mush.

Kim Dae-Young saw Jeong Jin-Young going berserk and yelled at him to stop him.

"Stop! It’s already dead!”

Only then did Jeong Jin-Young come back to his senses, panting heavily. His left side was a mess from shoulder to hip.

Kim Dae-Young looked him up and down, then asked, “Can you walk?”

Jeong Jin-Young placed his trembling right hand on his forehead, and after a moment, he nodded. It seemed like he’d come face to face with the fear of death. He looked around the battlefield, breathing heavily as he managed to hold onto his consciousness, which threatened to slip away at any moment.

Stomp, stomp, stomp!!!

Heavy footsteps came from the direction of the mass of zombies. A three-meter tall giant was pushing its way through the zombies that were rushing into Jeju Port like a bulldozer. Thinking that it might be Mood-Swinger, Jeong Jin-Young took a closer look at the giant that was approaching him, but it didn\'t take long for his hope to turn into despair.

Jeong Jin-Young went blank, and Kim Dae-Young grabbed him by the collar and jumped behind the first line of defense.

Lee Jeong-Uk also spotted the giant rushing towards their way, and he shouted to all the guards, “Evacuate to the second line of defense!!!”

The guards’ eyes, full of fear, were locked on the gigantic figure. The leaders of the Survivor Rally Organization hurriedly evacuated to the second line of defense, grabbing every blank-faced guard that they could as they did so.

Lee Jeong-Uk’s face was a mask of terror. His eyes had lost focus, as if he had seen a ghost. Han Seon-Hui, who was with the food, clothing, and shelter team, put down the Molotov cocktail in her hand and shook him.

"Where are you going? The first line of defense is still up!”

“Ms. Han Seon-Hui, go to the second line of defense right now!”

"Huh? I can’t. We’re still short on Molotov cocktails...”

Thud! Clank!!

The crash of something heavy hitting the iron wall echoed through Port Jeju. Han Seon-Hui looked at the first line of defense in surprise, but Lee Jeong-Uk grabbed her hand and started running to the second line of defense.

The K3 gunners manning the guard post saw the guards evacuating and hurriedly gathered their weapons and clambered down.

“What… What’s happening? Are we abandoning the first line of defense?”

“Yes!” Park Gi-Cheol shouted to the K3 gunners as headed toward the second line of defense. “We’re moving on to our next plan!”

The K3 gunners seemed surprised by his words, but they quickly gathered their wits about them and grabbed onto the ropes that were connected to the lower section of the guard post, then ran along each side of the base toward the second line of defense. They exchanged looks, then pulled the ropes as hard as they could.

The ropes were connected to the safety pins of the grenades that they had installed on the underside of the guard post.

Bang!!!

The guard post went down with a roar. The guard post collapsed onto the power line in front of it, and the wooden planks connected to the power line between Pier 6 and Pier 9 popped open.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The moment the planks were opened, barrels full of gasoline started pouring out left and right.

Clank!!

The iron wall crumbled, and zombies poured in through the first line of defense. The three-meter tall figure from earlier, the stage-two mutant, was in the center. It looked just like Mood-Swinger when he was a stage-two mutant. It had huge arms that looked like baobab trees, and it had abnormally developed trapezius muscles.

However, it had a strange body. It wasn’t balanced at all. Its lower body had almost no muscle when compared to its upper body.

GRRRRRR!!!

Lee Jeong-Uk reached the second line of defense as the zombies poured in.

“Throw the Molotov cocktails!!” he yelled.

The guards holding the Molotov cocktails began throwing them toward the barrels in unison. The sound of the explosions was enough to rattle the survivors’ skulls, and the heat from the first line of defense made it all the way to the second line of defense. The survivors frowned and coughed as cement and dust rained down upon them.

Even before the smell of gasoline and gunpowder had the chance to dissipate, Lee Jeong-Uk had taken up a ready position, pointing his gun toward the zombies.

“Open fire!!” he yelled towards the survivors.

“Open fire!!”

The guards repeated his order and began to pepper the approaching zombies with bullets.

KRRR!!!

The muscular stage-two mutant waved its arms as it roared at the flames wrapping around its body. Due to its weak lower body, it struggled to make its way through the flames and kept on falling down. However, unlike the ordinary zombies around it, it kept on getting up every time it fell down, screaming at the top of its lungs as it slowly approached the second line of defense.

‘It’s just a matter of time before it comes,’ thought Kim Dae-Young as he watched the mutant.

It would’ve been nice if the flames got the better of the mutant, but judging by the way it was moving, it seemed like it would eventually reach the second line of defense. Kim Dae-Young wet his parched lips and looked at the guards. They were all trembling with fear. Even though they were firing nonstop, it didn’t seem like they would be able to shake off their fear anytime soon.

Kim Dae-Young called out to Choi Da-Hye, who was next to him.

“Mrs. Choi Da-Hye, can you tell Mr. Jeong Jin-Young to stay still until he recovers?”

"Pardon? Where are you going off to, Mr. Kim Dae-Young?”

Kim Dae-Young got up and smiled gently at her.

“Only a monster can take down a monster.”

He knew that he stood no chance against the stage-two mutant, but he knew that if he didn’t do anything, some of the survivors might lose their minds and start running. He could hardly fault them if they did. Running would merely be following their instincts, their human instinct to survive. But if the survivors fled one by one, only utter chaos would remain.

Kim Dae-Young clenched his fists, and with a flash of his red eyes, he leaped over the second line of defense and dashed toward the blazing battlefield where the stage-two mutant was.

As Lee Jeong-Uk saw him go, he shouted at the guards, “Hold fire!! Don’t shoot Kim Dae-Young!”

The stage-two mutant eventually made its way through the flames but suddenly seemed to hesitate. Its eyes had been damaged while it escaped the flames, but it seemed to grow nervous after sensing Kim Dae-Young’s presence.

With a flash of his red eyes, Kim Dae-Young launched himself off the ground without hesitation and punched the stage-two mutant in the face.

Pow!!

A large fist-shaped scar formed on the stage-two mutant’s burnt face, and it fell into the flames again.

KIAAAAAA!!!

Stage-one mutants poured out from the flames and ran straight ahead, spinning their arms around, not caring what was happening around them. Kim Dae-Young let loose a scream loud enough to make the veins in his neck pop, to alert the mutants to his presence.

“GRRRRRR!!!”

His roar was enough to grab their attention. They stopped in their tracks and started looking sideways. Interestingly enough, they weren’t curling into their defensive stances even though they were being shot at. It seemed like they’d only stopped because they’d heard Kim Dae-Young. Perhaps their senses had grown dull now that their skin had been burnt to a crisp.

It seemed like most of the mutants had already lost their sense of smell, touch, and even sight. All they were left with was their hearing and their instinct to kill.

With the guards providing cover for Kim Dae-Young, he gritted his teeth and jumped into the battlefield. Soon after, the few remaining underlings he had started running toward the mutants, and Jeong Jin-Young ordered his underlings to help Kim Dae-Young as well.

A battle between the survivors who longed for peace and the zombies who desired slaughter continued, and the air around Port Jeju was filled with wails and screams.

* * *

“Gaaa!!!”

I went down, groaning as my skull rang from the impact. As the black creature landed its punch, Mood-Swinger hurriedly grabbed the monster by its waist and lifted it up. Ji-Eun didn’t miss her chance and began slashing at its legs and waist.

“Are you okay, ahjussi?”

"How about you?”

Kim Hyeong-Jun came next to me while he regenerated his missing arms. I tried to buy us time somehow, but I’d let it land a solid blow. I placed my hand on my throbbing head and pushed myself up.

“Arnol… d!"

I heard Mood-Swinger gasp and saw him falling backward with Ji-Eun in the air. The black creature had its eyes locked on me and Kim Hyeong-Jun as it regenerated its missing lower body. The parts Ji-Eun had sliced off had regenerated swiftly, and the black creature was dashing toward us in a frenzy.

The ringing inside my head became a steady, high-pitched whine, and the constant banging in my eardrums grew louder and clearer. I took a deep breath and brought my arms up to defend my face.

Crack!

My arm bones shattered, and its blow landed on my face. Just as the black creature was about to launch into a combo, Kim Hyeong-Jun hurriedly twisted from his waist and kicked it in the neck. However, the black creature sensed his threatening intent beforehand and avoided his roundhouse kick.

Kim Hyeong-Jun had yet to regain his sense of balance because he was still regenerating his arms. The black creature turned its head all the way around and looked at him.

“Fuck…!”

Kim Hyeong-Jun frowned and desperately tried to find his balance again. However, before he could even touch the ground again, the black creature had already sunk its teeth deep into his side. I knew that if Kim Hyeong-Jun went down like this, the black creature’s next bite would not be aimed at his side. It would sink its teeth into his neck.

I barely managed to gather my focus and threw myself at the black creature again. When I climbed onto its back and tried to bite its neck with my sharpened teeth, it bent its left arm behind itself to protect its neck. I bit its arm while my blue eyes flashed.

I felt it trying to push me away forcefully, but I also knew that if I were shoved aside, Kim Hyeong-Jun’s lower body would be sliced clean off, and he would soon die. No matter what happened, I couldn’t let it straighten its back.

I wrapped my legs around its waist and pulled its center of gravity backward. The three of us were all tangled up as we continued to battle fiercely. I knew we had to get to the place where Do Han-Sol was waiting for us, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn\'t shake off the black creature.

Half of my stage-one mutants were already gone, and the ones left weren’t in the best state either. I had to use the remaining stage-one mutants as bait to buy Kim Hyeong-Jun and me time when we needed to regenerate. Kim Hyeong-Jun and I had almost died twice already, and we had lost a lot of underlings in the process.

Finding an answer to a problem that had no answer. That was what surviving meant to us.

Kim Hyeong-Jun let out a battle cry as he glared at the black creature. His arms had fully regenerated in the nick of time, and he stabbed the black creature in the eyes with his regenerated arms. It seemed he wanted to pierce all the way into its brain. The black creature let go of his side and landed a right hook onto his jaw.

The three of us all flew apart instantly and rolled on the ground.

KWAAA!!!

The black creature was rolling around on the floor, blood streaming from its eyes. Both of my arms were already shattered, and it seemed like Kim Hyeong-Jun had lost consciousness after getting hit.

I knew this was our chance to run; we had to get going if we wanted to execute the next part of our plan, but Kim Hyeong-Jun showed no signs of regaining consciousness.

But there was no time to waste. Even if it was going to cost us all of our underlings, Kim Hyeong-Jun and I had to buy time to regenerate our bodies.

“Kill it!”

KIAAAAAA!!!

I still had twenty-three stage-one mutants left. But they were either missing an arm or a leg, so I figured that this order might be the last order I gave them. After ordering my few remaining underlings to kill the black creature, I carried Kim Hyeong-Jun by his shoulder blades like a dog would carry its child, and headed to where Do Han-Sol was.

Ji-Eun and Mood Swinger were also helping the stage-one mutants attack the black creature, whose sight was still impaired. However, even though the black creature had lost its sight, it used its other senses to deal with the mutants. The black creature was a being that did not belong in this world, this world where the law of the jungle was supposed to be everything. It was a transcendent being that almost seemed almighty.

At that moment, Kim Hyeong-Jun let out a groan.

“Ugh…”

Fortunately, Kim Hyeong-Jun had taken less than a minute to get back to his senses.

"Are you okay? You good?” I asked as I let him go.

"Did I… pass out?”

“Yeah. I thought you were dead.”

“I guess we can pass out even without eating brains.”

“Geez, is that important right now? Get up! Now!”

Kim Hyeong-Jun frowned and massaged his temples, and barely got himself upright on shaky legs. We made our way to where Do Han-Sol was, with Kim Hyeong-Jun following me and shaking his head violently. He kept on stumbling from side to side and falling to the ground, as if he couldn’t focus.

Whoosh–

Something flew toward us, casting a long shadow over us. I was still in a heightened state of paranoia, and quickly twisted from my waist and kicked out.

“Woah! It’s me! Me!” shouted Do Han-Sol as he barely dodged my kick. “I thought you two were dead because you hadn’t come after all this time!”

“Get Hyeong-Jun. Hurry!" I said urgently.

Do Han-Sol grabbed Kim Hyeong-Jun by the collar and carried him on his back. My agitated tone was enough for him.

With that, we immediately headed to our next destination.