Walking Daddy

On my second trip back, I’d made four more. That meant I had a total of eighty-one underlings with me.

This made it eighty-one against over three hundred. The other side had an overwhelming advantage in numbers. I sighed and headed toward the art room. I grabbed all the blue paint there was and returned to my underlings.

I, too, had been engulfed by fear when I first saw the red creatures. However, after seeing the survivors lose hope that they would make it out alive, I knew what I needed to do. I reminded myself of my purpose for continuing to live, the reason I couldn\'t let my life end even though I was a zombie.

‘For So-Yeon, right?’

Yes, it was for So-Yeon. And for the people who had washed her, fed her, and took care of her while I had been gone for a week. The people who were, at this moment, fearing for their lives.

I knew I wasn’t alone. No—in fact, none of us were alone. I wanted to wash away their despair. I wanted to show them the meaning of life, along with the hope that they would live on. I wanted to plant the idea of consolation in their hearts.

I knew that there would be moments that would be painful enough to make me want to give up. At that moment, I didn’t dare fathom how much pain that would be. However, as I thought about it, it seemed like there had never been a day without pain. Not a single day as a human, or as a being that couldn’t die.

I knew pain would be inevitable, and I would have to endure the suffering ahead of me. And if that was my destiny, I wasn’t going to get sad, sulky, or fall into despair alone. I had a community now. I would laugh, cry, and share my moments with others.

I squeezed out all the blue paint on a palette to paint the underlings that hadn’t yet been painted. After a moment, Lee Jeong-Uk joined me, looked closely at what I was doing. He sighed, then walked toward me, his posture sagging and his face completely straight. He took a handful of paint and started smearing it on my underlings as well.

Then, he said in a low voice, “We can do anything if we fight to the end.”

“...”

“I’m not sure how many enemies there are, but since they’re not making the first move, it seems like they also have no clue how many of us there are.”

“....”

“They’ll start attacking once they have an idea of how many of us they’re up against.”

Lee Jeong-Uk had a point. However, I felt like there was another reason behind their inaction. I believed they were trying to follow us.

If they were thinking about attacking this place, they would’ve attacked earlier, through the back entrance. However, the only thing they had been doing was keeping an eye on our movements from three hundred meters away. I bet that they were curious as to why we kept on going out through the back entrance. They probably wanted to find out our destination.

They weren’t thinking of cutting off our arms and legs. Rather, they were thinking of swallowing us whole.

We finally finished painting all my underlings. Lee Jeong-Uk sighed deeply, clutching his stainless steel spear.

“Alrighty then…”

He sighed as if it were his last sigh as a living soul. It was heavier than any other sigh I had heard from him. Lee Jeong-Uk chuckled weakly. “Let’s keep going till the…”

Thud!

His eyes widened in surprise. He stared blankly at his two hands. Without even realizing it, the stainless steel spear that had been in his hands was suddenly in mine. I pushed Lee Jeong-Uk, dumbfounded, into the classroom.

He let out a small scream, landing on his bottom. I looked into each of the survivor’s faces as I ordered my underlings in the hallway into the classroom.

‘One, two, three, four…’

Once thirty of them were inside, I ordered them to guard the door.

‘The thirty of you, protect the survivors and kill anything that tries to get in through the windows. The rest in the hallway, kill the ones that try to get into the classroom. Lastly, the ones in the classroom, don’t let anyone out until I get back.’

It was a simple order. Kill anything that approaches. Once I had given my orders, I shut the classroom door. Lee Jeong-Uk quickly got up, trying to open the door. However, the underlings inside the classroom stopped him. He had no choice but to back away. The sudden development took the survivors completely by surprise.

With them inside, I headed toward the entrance to the school compound. The wide field welcomed me, and the fresh summer breeze kissed my cheeks. The subtle chirping of bugs calmed my nervousness. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“Grr…”

I sorted out my jumbled emotions. I was at peace; everything seemed so peaceful. Fear, nervousness, despair, or frustration—they no longer held me back.

As I opened my eyes, I focused my gaze on the lights glowing in the distance. I took one step after another toward them, gripping ever more tightly onto the stainless steel spear.

I wasn’t sure how to describe the situation. I wasn’t even sure if there was a word or phrase that could describe my feelings.

Oh, nevermind. I found the perfect saying.

‘I’m not going down by myself.’

It was time to see who fell into hell first.

* * *

Thud, thud, thud.

The dark sky shoved me toward them, like a lonely boat in the middle of the ocean being pushed by strong, dark waves.

Before I knew it, I was almost upon them. The three-hundred-meter distance between us felt like nothing. In moments, I was a mere thirty meters away from them.

They peered down at me through the windows of an eight-storey building. They were probably startled by my unexpected move. None of them moved in response, but their eyes were locked on me, full of curiosity.

Soon after, another being appeared on the roof of the building. I looked closely at its face. It was different from the ones I’d seen before. It wasn’t a normal red, but a deep, crimson red.

I didn’t know how to describe its color. It was almost the color of red wine, the sort of wine that has matured over a long time. Its entire body had a burgundy hue.

We glared at each other for a while, then it vanished out of sight. After a moment, I heard heavy footsteps coming from inside the building, causing my hair to stand on end. Before I realized it, the creature had made it down to the first-floor entrance.

It had red glowing eyes, like me. I locked eyes with the creature.

‘Is it trying to talk to me? How is talking going to work? Do we have to get down on the asphalt and start drawing?’

We kept on staring at each other. We were both waiting for the other side to make the first move.

‘Hey you, you hear me don’t you?’

At that moment, my mind went blank. I had no clue where this sound was coming from. The creature in front of me had its blue lips tightly shut. However, I knew that this sound was coming from the creature standing right in front of me. There was no other possibility.

It walked right up to me, its face filling my vision, and repeated its question. ‘You hear me, don’t you?’

I replied to it this time, my eyes glowing red. ‘What’s your purpose for showing up here?’

I was communicating with it just by thinking. We didn’t need to communicate verbally. Signals were sent straight to my brain, as though we were plants communicating with one another.

It flashed a sly smirk, then continued with its own questions. ‘You already know what I want. How many people do you have back at the school?’

‘That’s none of your business.’

‘I know they\'re yours, but if you keep it up like this, you’re going to lose. Can’t you tell?’

‘I don’t need you to remind me about that.’

This was a rather unpleasant conversation. In fact, I didn’t even know if what we were doing could be considered a conversation. It felt like predators fighting over prey.

It scratched its head silently for a while. Then it frowned and continued, ‘At this point, you’re just asking me to kill you. You know that right?’

‘Come at me if you think you can.’

I glared at it, tilting my head. I knew I couldn’t back down right now. If I did, I knew it would unsheath its claws and attack me right away. The creature snorted and let out a vulgar laugh.

‘GRRR!! GARRRR!!’

It howled as it opened its dirty and vulgar mouth. Its laugh was too vulgar to even be considered a laugh. It stared into my eyes with a deadly serious expression and said, ‘You seem pretty full of yourself. But what are you going to do? Nothing good will come from getting into trouble with us.’

My eyes twitched after hearing its words. I looked away to avoid its gaze while I processed what it had just said.

‘Did it say ‘us’? Does that mean it’s not alone?’

I mean, it was a zombie that had the ability to think. If they had the ability to think like humans, of course there was the possibility of them moving in groups. I couldn’t believe I’d missed this.

Pat.

The creature put its hand on my shoulder. I was still avoiding its gaze. Its touch was nothing but a sensation of unpleasant dirtiness. I focused on its face while it continued to speak. It was frowning. ‘Hey ahjussi, you should look at the other person’s face when you’re talking.’

‘What good is it to see your damn face?” I replied, tilting my head.

It let out a rather dumbfounded huff, and took a step backwards, staring blankly at my face. It looked at me incredulously. ‘Don’t you know anything?’

‘...’

‘HAHAHAHA!’

It howled with laughter, and its tone grew more arrogant. ‘Here I was, thinking this guy knew what was going on. Turns out he doesn’t know shit! Stupidity is truly the best, isn’t it? You sure got a lot of courage though!’

It roared its disconcerting laugh once again. Its laughter swept through every part of my body, giving me the chills. I clearly lacked information. This meant it had the high ground. It was no longer an even tug-of-war. It had the upper hand, and I was going to be dragged forward by it.

It stared right into my eyes and started bombarding me with questions.

‘How many underlings can we have?’

‘...’

‘What happens if we eat each other?’

‘...’

‘What happens if we eat humans?’

I couldn’t answer any of its questions. It snorted with its head up high, as if there was no further point to this confrontation. It acted as if it was already the winner.

It continued in a teasing manner, ‘Hey ahjussi, if you don’t want to die as a laughing stock, just stay low. Got it?’

‘...’

‘The next time you see my gang, run for your goddamn life. The others aren’t gentlemen like me. You got it?’

I kept silent, and it flicked my cheek with a finger.

‘And, ahjussi, look people in the eye when you speak. Or else we can’t hear a goddamn thing you’re saying. There’s rules to follow. Got it?’

‘Rules?’

‘Huh? You really don’t know anything? Ahjussi, have you never seen others with red eyes like us?’

‘...’

I replied with a blank stare, and it stared back at me as though at a loss for words.

I wondered if it was mad at me. Given the way it was looking at me, though, I assumed not. Rather, it seemed more astonished than mad.

Despite its silence, I could guess its thoughts by its expression. It was probably something close to this:

- How has he managed to not meet any other red-eyed creatures??

After a moment, it looked toward its underlings. Now that we no longer held eye contact, I stopped hearing its voice. I had no clue what orders it was giving to its underlings.

‘Is this why it said to look each other in the eyes when communicating?’

I realized that I couldn’t hear anything without eye contact. After a moment, one of its underlings came running, clutching a paper folded into a rectangle. It snatched the paper from its underling, frowning as it opened the crumpled paper.

Even though I had no clue what they were saying, I could sense that something was amiss. After a pause, it looked at me with its glowing red eyes and asked me in a serious tone, ‘Hey ahjussi, where the hell is this place?’

Needless to say, I didn’t answer.