Walking Daddy

“There’s something I haven’t been able to tell you up to now. I’m sorry I kept it a secret. I’m sorry that I’m telling you this right now. But in this world, there are zombies that fight for humans.”

Park Gi-Cheol let out the secret he had been keeping to himself. The group leader tilted her head and frowned at Park Gi-Cheol’s sudden and unexpected statement. She advanced on Park Gi-Cheol and pointed her hunting knife at his throat.

“Ahjussi, have you been lying to us? A zombie that fights for humans? Ahjussi, are you a ‘dog’?”

“No, I’m not a ‘dog’. I just… I just didn’t know when was the right time to tell you this. I just couldn’t bring it up. I know how people here think of zombies. That’s why I couldn’t say anything about this.”

“What are you talking about, ahjussi? How dare you say something like that when you know how much I’ve trusted you!”

“I’m sorry. I’ll take whatever punishment for my wrongdoings later, and I won’t try to get myself out of it. But for now, you have to listen to what I have to say.”

The group leader gritted her teeth and then cut the throat of the next ‘dog’ that approached her. She then looked at Park Gi-Cheol.

“If you try anything funny, I’m going to treat you as a ‘dog’.”

“I have no time to explain. It’ll be faster if you see the zombies for yourself.”

Park Gi-Cheol and the group leader ran toward the second defense line together. Zombies were there in a tangle, shedding each other’s blood. The group leader’s jaw dropped to the ground after seeing what was unfolding in front of her eyes.

She placed a palm against her face and asked Park Gi-Cheol, “What… what’s going on here?”

The murderous look she’d had was nowhere to be seen, replaced by utter confusion.

Park Gi-Cheol swallowed. “They’re the support I’ve been talking about.”

“Did you ask them for help?”

“No. I think they knew that we were under attack and came here to help us.”

“...”

The group leader frowned and bit her lips. A mixture of emotions whirled up inside her. Resentment, anger, and the desire to kill zombies was what made the current group leader the way she was.

But now, there were zombies that fought for the sake of humans.

The group leader had never seen these kinds of zombies. She let out a quick breath and asked Park Gi-Cheol, “What in the world are these blue zombies?”

“These blue zombies, I’ve seen them just once before.”

“Hmm?”

“Before I came to Shelter Seoul Forest, a zombie saved me and my people. These are that zombie’s underlings.”

“Underlings? A zombie can control other zombies?”

The group leader frowned and tilted her head. In her mind, if these were underlings, that meant there was a chain of command, which also meant there was a leader.

The group leader ground her teeth and looked at Park Gi-Cheol.

She felt a sense of unexplainable betrayal. Her teeth were grinding away in anger, now that she was realizing how ignorant she had been. But at the same time, she was rooting for the blue zombies. Maybe that was the cunning side to human beings.

The group leader looked at Park Gi-Cheol.

“Ahjussi, whatever you know, tell me all of it.”

“Right now?”

“If not now, then when? Don’t make me more miserable than I am right now.”

“Well… First, let’s support them…”

“Support? Are you going to throw Molotov cocktails at them? Or start shooting? There’s nothing we can do that will count as ‘support’.”

Park Gi-Cheol shut his mouth and nodded slowly.

After a moment, he let out a dry cough and glanced at the guard leader. The group leader, noticing Park Gi-Cheol’s actions, called the guard leader over.

“Guard leader, move the injured somewhere else while the blue zombies delay the attack. Gi-Cheol ahjussi and I will take care of the situation here.”

“Yes, group leader.”

The guard leader called in the medics and ran toward the injured. The group leader watched as the guard leader moved away, then spoke up.

“Alright, let’s hear it.”

“Okay… There are some zombies with glowing red eyes. They’re the leaders.”

“What!? Glowing red eyes? You knew all of this all along and you never said a word?”

“I’m sorry.”

“If I’d known this early on, the people here… the people here…! They shouldn’t have died like that. I trusted you, ahjussi. That’s why I put you in charge of the rescue team… God…”

The group leader started to tear up, but her eyes still flashed like those of a fierce lynx that was ready to chew up Park Gi-Cheol at any minute. The feeling of betrayal had her gnashing her teeth. Park Gi-Cheol returned her glare with a serious expression.

“If I had told you earlier, would you have believed it?”

“Huh?”

“You go crazy every time you see zombies, don\'t you? How in the world would I have been able to persuade you that there were zombies in the world that helped others!”

As Park Gi-Cheol began to raise his voice, the group leader looked at him, uncomprehending. It seemed like she had a hard time wrapping her head around his nonsense. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. It seemed like she couldn’t find a reply to what Park Gi-Cheol was saying. The two of them were getting angry at each other when there wasn’t even enough time to talk.

Park Gi-Cheol massaged his temples with a sad expression. After a moment, he let out a sigh.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s alright. Finish your story.”

“Among them…”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Just as Park Gi-Cheol was about to offer an explanation for the zombies, a huge crash came from the left side of the shelter.

Despite the earlier order to conserve their bullets, the survivors manning the left side of the shelter chose to disobey it.

The group leader flicked her gaze toward them. She didn’t see any zombies making it over the wall, and wondered what they were shooting at.

With a frown, she yelled, “Stop! Stop shooting! Stop shooting…!”

An instant later, a large shadow passed over her, leaving her speechless. There was a gigantic hand on the top of the wall, as though something was trying to climb over it. A large collection of eyeballs was peering at the survivors inside the shelter.

All the survivors, not just the group leader, were astounded. They turned pale, and the shadow of despair loomed over them.

“Save… me…”

“It’s… okay… son…”

“I’m… hungry… mom…”

A mutant had appeared. To make things worse, there were three of them.

The group leader tightened her grip on her hunting knife and ran toward the mutants.

“Group leader! Wait! Group leader!”

Park Gi-Cheol yelled at her, but she did not listen to him.

The mutants began to attack the survivors indiscriminately using their long arms. The survivors were no match against the strange, twisted bodies and the attacks that were coming from unpredictable angles.

Bang, bang, bang!

The group leader drew her pistol from her belt and fired at the mutants. The mutants covered their faces with their hands and kept on attacking the survivors.

The pistol’s bullets could not penetrate the mutants’ tough skin. As long as they weren’t struck in the face, none of them would go down.

A few breaths later, one of the mutants noticed the group leader and dashed toward her. One of its long legs came sweeping toward her. Park Gi-Cheol tackled her from behind, and the two of them fell to the ground.

Swoosh!

The mutant’s kick missed her by a hair. But the strangely-twisted mutant’s legs were not obeying the laws of physics at all. The leg that passed over them twisted around somehow and positioned itself above Park Gi-Cheol and the group leader. Their eyes went wide, and they rolled away in opposite directions, as if they’d planned it ahead of time.

Thud!!!

A thick cloud of dust was kicked up as the mutant\'s foot hit the ground.

The group leader quickly got up and took out her hunting knife, striking the mutant’s Achilles heel. The mutant’s foot flapped as its Achilles tendon was severed. However, the mutant kicked the group leader with its flapping foot, as though the attack had done no damage.

“Urgh!”

The group leader rolled several times on the ground. With just one attack, the group leader was done. Her trembling body betrayed the severe condition she was in.

The group leader threw up blood and couldn’t get up. As he watched her go down, Park Gi-Cheol yelled at the other survivors, “What are you all doing? Shoot, shoot it, damn it!”

The survivors, who’d been running around like headless chickens, desperately mounted their K2s and fired toward the mutant.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The survivors who were holding the second defense line joined them, and they concentrated their fire on the mutants.

KIAAA!!!

The countless bullets flying toward the mutants tore up their flesh. The mutants quickly curled up and covered their faces with their hands and legs.

If they had been ordinary zombies, they would’ve run toward the survivors without caring what happened to their bodies. But these mutants had given up on attacking and adopted a defensive stance. This meant that they had the capability to learn. They possessed some form of intelligence.

Park Gi-Cheol made his way through the flying bullets and crawled next to the group leader.

“Group leader, group leader!”

“Ahjussi… Ahjussi.”

“Wake up! Get yourself together!”

“Hup!”

The group leader spewed out blood and looked at Park Gi-Cheol. Her vision was turning blurry. Park Gi-Cheol, his face a mask of despair, yelled for help at the top of his lungs.

“Medic!!! Medic!!!”

“Gi-Cheol ahjussi!”

The guard leader came running with some medics in tow. The group leader was crying out in agony. The medics performed first aid while the guard leader kept calling the group leader’s name anxiously.

Roll…

Click, click, click.

A huge explosion assaulted the survivors’ eardrums, silencing all other sounds. The bullets stopped flying immediately. The cries of the zombies at the second defense line sounded like mere echoes. The cartridge cases rolling on the floor made an eerie sound. The heated muzzles were giving off steam. Most of the survivors were frowning at the smell of gunpowder that stung their noses.

Everyone was staring at the same place. After a moment, several survivors began to speak in uncertain voices.

“Are they dead?”

Everyone was looking at the mutants, silent as mice.

Grrr…

At that moment, the motionless mutants made an eerie sound. As the mutants uncovered their faces, the countless eyeballs behind their torn-up hands began to look around in all directions.

They weren’t dead. Instead, their eyes were now full of hate.

Grrr…

The mutant in the very front made a throat-rending sound and got up. It did not stand up on its two legs, though. Instead, it crouched close to the ground, on all fours. The mutants next to it did the same.

Grrr!!!

With deafening cries, they started moving again. They rushed at the survivors in a nightmarish position that brought chills down the survivor’s spines.

They were like enormous cockroaches. Their movements were quick, throwing the survivors into confusion. They were moving more quickly and with much more agility than they’d been on two legs.

“Fix your bayonets! Bayonets!”

They were at least one hundred meters away, but the mutants were upon the survivors even before they could fix their bayonets.

“AHHH!”

“No, no!”

“Let go! Help, help me!”

The survivors were set upon in an instant, before they even had the chance to get into formation. Despairing cries filled the air, and human blood splattered all over the ground.

“Oh my goodness, Mom… MOM!”

A male student in his uniform was curled up on the floor as if he had lost all hope of surviving. He had his hands over his ears and was looking for his mother as though he had gone insane.

In a flash, a long shadow hovered above him. The monstrous hand reached down and ripped off the boy’s head. The mutant chuckled as it chewed on the boy’s head. With a wide grin, it muttered to itself,

“Mom… Mom…”

The survivors all turned pale.

“Run away! Let’s run away!”

“Hide!”

The survivors lost their will to fight and scattered. This was no longer a battle. They were being slaughtered. It was nothing more than a massacre.

The mutant’s appearance engraved fear into the hearts of the survivors. The glimmer of hope that they had been holding onto before the appearance of the mutants started to fade away, and with the mutant muttering the words ‘Mom’, their last ounce of hope had been shattered.

The organization of the shelter had collapsed, and all the survivors had lost their sanity. The people here were no longer human beings that were rational and had emotions, but prey animals whose only instinct was survival.

Park Gi-Cheol yelled and grabbed those who were running away.

“Everyone, get back to your senses! We’ll all be wiped out if we don’t stand together!”

No matter how hard Park Gi-Cheol pleaded, no one stopped to listen. They were all in a rush to get away, their eyes unfocused.

Soon after, one of the mutants titled its head, having heard Park Gi-Cheol. The strangely-titled head looked at Park Gi-Cheol right in the eyes, and then the mutant that it was attached to came running at him with a wide grin.

Park Gi-Cheol’s eyes went wide as he stared at the mutant coming toward him, and he grabbed the bamboo spear lying next to him. He knew that the group leader and guard leader would die if he ran away. He knew he stood no chance, but all he could do was to resist with what he had.

“Come at me, you bastard!”

The veins on the back of his hands popped out as he wielded the bamboo spear.

When the mutant was right in front of him, Park Gi-Cheol gritted his teeth and hurled the bamboo spear as hard as he could.

But the mutant stopped in its tracks and lifted its right hand high, as if it had already anticipated Park Gi-Cheol’s move.

Park Gi-Cheol’s gaze was subconsciously drawn to the mutant’s right hand. The mutant’s arm, two meters long, looked like a scaffold, ready to put an end to his life.

‘...Fuck.’

Park Gi-Cheol felt all his useless thoughts disappear. He knew he wouldn\'t be able to avoid its attack. He knew his end was near. That everything was going to end here for him.

At that moment, something flashed in between the mutant’s hands. There was something in the night sky that didn’t belong there. It wasn’t a satellite, or a plane with its blinking lights, or even a star. It was a glowing red light, moving swiftly.

That red light was dropping like a meteor toward him.