Walking Daddy

We’d been busy all through the year, and winter was just around the corner. The air we were breathing had gotten colder, and we realized that it was chilly enough that we would need thicker winter clothes.

Of course, it was impossible for us zombies to feel the cold when we felt no pain. Despite this, our physical abilities were still slightly hampered by the cold, since our bodies were still primarily human.

I took a deep breath, then looked at Do Han-Sol.

“Han-Sol, can you reinforce the security of the hotel while we’re away?”

"Will do."

“Hyeong-Jun, if you can take charge of the Douglas Hotel on the right. I’ll check the Vista Hotel on the left.”

"Okay."

Once our roles were assigned, we prepared to move out. As I began to head toward Vista Hotel, Do Han-Sol called out to me from behind.

“Oh, Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok!”

I glanced back. Do Han-Sol looked worried.

“What if the black creature shows up again?”

When I heard his question, I realized that I’d forgotten to bring something up during the discussion the night before.

I had forgotten to tell everyone that the Family had stopped feeding the black creatures.

As I stood there, feeling slightly stunned, Kim Hyeong-Jun came up to me.

“What is it, ahjussi? It seems like you know something.”

“I forgot.”

“Huh?”

“There’s something I forgot to tell everyone during the meeting last night.”

I sighed and massaged my temples gently.

I had so much on my mind that I kept on forgetting things. Kim Hyeong-Jun crossed his arms and looked at me.

“Tell me. What is it?”

“I think the gang members stopped feeding the black creatures bait.”

"What?"

Kim Hyeong-Jun stared at me, his eyes going wide. His expression grew troubled.

“Wait, what is that supposed to mean? Are they low on bait?”

“Follow me. I have something to show you.”

I led the two of them back inside the hotel lobby again.

As we entered, I saw Lee Jeong-Uk and Hwang Ji-Hye attaching the official documents along the lobby wall. Lee Jeong-Uk tore off some tape and said to me, “Back so soon? Did you find the dogs?”

"No. But there\'s something everyone has to see."

"Huh? What?”

“The two of you should finish up what you’re doing right now and come up to the restaurant on the second floor as well.”

“Okay…”

Hwang Ji-Hye whispered something to Lee Jeong-Uk. He shrugged and quickly tried to wrap up what they were doing.

I entered the restaurant on the second floor and pointed to the room in the corner that had been used as a confessional.

“That’s a study that used to belong to the leader here. Go ahead and check it out. I’ll join you after Lee Jeong-Uk and Hwang Ji-Hye get here.”

“Okay.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun and Do Han-Sol entered the study while I sat in an empty seat in the restaurant, absorbed in my own thoughts.

\'Did they choose to withdraw?’

If they had stopped supplying the black creatures with food, that meant that the survivors of Gangnam were holding them off more strongly than they’d anticipated. I wondered if that meant that they\'d brought the baits in to augment their forces. Or maybe the boss had given up on Gangbuk after suffering the defeat in Gwangjin-gu.

If they returned to Gangbuk to retaliate, there was no way that the survivors of Gangnam would leave Sogang Bridge alone. The gang boss may have been faced with the difficult decision of holding on to Gangbuk or not, and had chosen to give up Gangbuk to focus on the Gangnam Operation.

If they considered Gangbuk a place that they could take back anytime, this possibility was more than likely.

When I reached this conclusion, a wave of nervousness swept through my body. I even felt as though my dead heart had begun to beat again. At that moment, I had no clue how to calm myself down.

I wondered if this meant that there weren’t any members of the Family left in Gangbuk, and it was just the black creatures remaining. If the Family had to incorporate the baits into the main body of their forces, there was little to no chance for there to be any dong leaders left in Gangbuk.

There was no doubt that the black creatures were superior to us in terms of strength. But the members of the Family were much more terrifying than them, because the members of the Family had the ability to think.

Perhaps… This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to claim Gangbuk in the name of the Survivor Rally Organization.

If we occupied Gangbuk and pushed toward Sogang Bridge, we’d be able to annihilate the Family.

It would be more than possible if we were able to forge an alliance with Gangnam. They had the firepower, and we had the numbers.

I clenched my fists and put on a determined face.

I saw a ray of hope shining on me.

* * *

After Lee Jeong-Uk and Hwang Ji-Hye examined the study, we sat around the center table of the restaurant. We had the map that belonged to the Family in front of us. Lee Jeong-Uk looked at the map and spoke up.

“This map doesn’t have Shelter Hae-Young’s location marked out yet. Do you think this is reliable?”

“They found out Shelter Hae-Young’s location during the Gwangjin-gu battle, so it’s only right for it to not be there.”

Lee Jeong-Uk gently rubbed his chin as he sucked on his lower lip. Hwan Ji-Hye took the opportunity to speak.

“There are a total of four scissors marks left on the map. Yeonnam-dong in Mapo-gu, Eungam-dong in Eunpyeong-gu, Itaewon in Yongsan-gu, and Haengdang-dong in Seongdong-gu.”

“The black creature we took care of a few days ago came from Haengdang 2-dong. It was similar to the black creature that Jae-Hwan drew for us a while back.”

"Then… Does that mean there are still three more of them left?”

“Yes, Mapo-gu and Eunpyeong-gu are out in the west, so they aren’t too big of a threat at the moment, but I can’t get my mind off of the one in Itaewon.”

“How are we going to find and take care of them? It’s not like they have locators on their bodies or anything.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” I said calmly. “We won’t have to go looking for them. They’ll come to us.”

Hwang Ji-Hye’s expression grew troubled, and she massaged her temples.

Kim Hyeong-Jun, who had been listening quietly, pointed to the shield markings on the map.

“What should we do with the remaining shelters?”

“Honestly, I have no clue.”

I knew that we couldn’t move hastily, since none of the information we had was certain. We had no information on how many survivors each shelter had, let alone if they were even any left.

In response to my honest and realistic answer, Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his forehead and continued, “Most of the shelters drawn on the map are outside of Seoul. Those areas are managed by the weaker dong leaders. I’d think the survivors would still be alive. Don’t you think so?”

“...”

“Do Han-Sol is also from Gunja-dong, which is marked as green on this map. I’m sure there’ll be shelters that are still up, just like Shelter Barrier.”

“No, you’re right. There’s a high chance of them still being there. The problem is, we can’t get to them. If the black creatures come here while we’re gone, do you think everyone else left here will be able to stop it?”

Kim Hyeong-Jun smacked his lips as I listed out my doubts, and his expression grew puzzled. It seemed like he couldn’t think of a reasonable answer to my question.

Fighting the black creature had been difficult, even with both Kim Hyeong-Jun and I fighting it together. If we weren’t together when faced with the next one, it would mean the end of the Survivors Rally Organization.

Kim Hyeong-Jun sat there with his arms crossed, lost in thought, but after a moment, he snapped his fingers as if he had just realized something.

“Ahjussi, we have Mood-Swinger!”

I also snapped my fingers when he brought up his idea. He was right. We had Mood-Swinger. And we still didn’t know how strong Mood-Swinger was, now that it had turned into a stage-three mutant. It was possible that it was on par with us, zombies that had blue eyes, or even stronger.

I looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun.

“Hyeong-Jun, could you go and evaluate Mood-Swinger’s physical capabilities? And Han-Sol, can you check for any other clues in the study?”

“Okay.”

“Will do.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun and Do Han-Sol went their respective ways. I looked over at Lee Jeong-Uk.

“Jeong-Uk, if you could work on organizing and stabilizing the shelter, the survivors will probably need some time to adjust to their respective responsibilities.”

"Okay."

Lee Jeong-Uk nodded without saying anything. After a moment, he gave myself and Hwang Ji-Hye a sidelong look.

“Then, about Jeong-Hyuk’s and Da-Hye’s wedding… Should we postpone it a little?”

“Yeah, let’s do that for now. We still need some time to fully understand the current situation. We’re not a hundred percent certain that the Family has given up on Gangbuk just yet.”

“…Okay.”

Lee Jeong-Uk sighed and nodded. It seemed like he was looking forward to the wedding. I could imagine the depth of his disappointment right now, since I knew how deeply he cared about Lee Jeong-Hyuk and Choi Da-Hye. It was obvious from his voice alone. I patted Lee Jeong-Uk on the shoulder.

“Let’s keep it up. Just a little more. The good days will come soon.”

“Okay.”

Lee Jeong-Uk rose to his feet with a gentle smile. Hwang Ji-Hye stood as well, and gave Lee Jeong-Uk a slap on his back.

“The group leader can’t go around looking this glum. Cheer up!”

“Haha… Alright.”

Lee Jeong-Uk forced a smile and accompanied Hwang Ji-Hye to the lobby. After everyone had left the restaurant, I took another look at the map of Seoul that was laid out on the table.

There were three black creatures roaming freely, and five shelters left in Gangbuk. I wondered what lay ahead of them.

I sighed and scratched my forehead.

‘Now isn’t the time to think about others. I should be thinking about myself and about us first.’

I got up and headed for the front entrance of the hotel. My priority was to go through the surrounding hotels first, and then make sure that Gwangjang-dong was safe.

* * *

It’s often said that time is relative.

Fifteen days, which would pass like nothing when I was human, was now a long enough stretch of time to make significant changes.

A lot had changed for the Survivor Rally Organisation over the past fifteen days.

Kim Hyeong-Jun and I finished cleaning up Gwangjang-dong and were able to put up a fence along the border.

Park Gi-Cheol had reorganized the guards and began to teach them professional combat techniques, and even organized a patrol unit to strengthen the surveillance of Gwangjang-dong.

The facilities management team used the hotel\'s underground parking lot as their work space, and slowly but surely started working on making solar panels.

There was a tiny issue in regards to the batteries, but Kwak Dong-Won assured us that it was an issue that could be solved.

The farmland at the foot of Achasan started to look like actual farmland.

The farming team plowed the soil, sweating despite the cold winter, since the elder had emphasized that it was essential to take care of the soil during the winter in order to have better crops the following year.

The children were able to get back to studying. Thanks to the library on the second floor of the hotel, the classroom experience got better by the day.

The laundry team started to use the water from the Han River to do the laundry. I was worried that they might get frostbite from washing clothes with the ice-cold Han River water while enduring the chilly wind.

However, the team brushed off the cold wind and frigid water as if they were nothing, warming their hands with their breath as they chatted and laughed amongst themselves.

The medical team had converted the third floor into a hospital, as was trying their best to work with the supplies they had.

It seemed like everything was slowly coming together. The survivors were creating miracles out of nothing. Everyone was working together to create a better tomorrow.

As I observed the survivors in delight, Kim Hyeong-Jun came up to me.

“What’s making Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok ahjussi so happy, I wonder?”

“When did you get here?”

“A while ago. How’d you not notice?”

I chuckled and shook my head. Kim Hyeong-Jun looked around, as though looking for someone.

“What about Han-Sol?”

“Han-Sol’s on guard duty.”

Not too long ago, Kim Hyeong-Jun had been calling him ‘Mr. Do Han-Sol’, then ‘Do Han-Sol’, but now, he was calling him Han-Sol. It seemed like the two had grown closer.

They were finally calling each other on a first-name basis.

Kim Hyeong-Jun nodded.

“Surprisingly enough, Hwang Ji-Hye is running late.”

“She’ll be here soon.”

I stashed my hands in my pockets and sniffled as the cold winter air tickled the tip of my nose.

I looked over at the end of Achasan-ro that led to the hotel and saw Hwang Ji-Hye approaching from afar.

She was bringing an empty cart, along with ten guards. I saw Kwang Dong-Won next to her. I looked around at their faces.

“Are you all ready?” I asked.

"Yes."

As she answered, Hwang Ji-Hye double-checked if she had her flashlight with her. I took a breath and spoke up.

“I’ll give a briefing before we move on. We’ll meet with the survivors in Gangnam, and we’ll come back right after we get the things we need.”

“Understood!”

The guards looked at me and responded energetically. They were answering as if they had nothing to be scared of, but their expressions were saying something different. They were stiff, and seemed very nervous.

I let a smile play across my lips as I looked at them.

“Nothing dangerous will happen. It’s good to be a little nervous, but don’t get too nervous.”

“Yes, yes.”

The guards smiled shyly, letting some of their anxiety slide away.

It was the third Saturday of the month. It was the designated day to receive updates on what was happening in Gangnam, along with fresh supplies.

We planned to reach Seoul Forest before sunset to meet the survivors of Gangnam.

I took a look at the survivors’ faces.

“Make sure you follow me and don’t fall behind. And please, try to put in your best effort until the end.”

"Understood!”

After we went through the individual assignments, we headed to the border of Gwangjang-dong.

When we got to the border, we came upon a tightly closed iron door. Thanks to the hard work of the facilities management team from day one, we had managed to install an iron gate that made it possible to enter and to leave Gwangjang-dong.

There were still several things that could be improved, such as the fence not being high enough, but it was more than enough to give everyone a sense of safety and stability.

I knew that things would only get better from now on.

Unless we decided to stop with what we were doing, the world would soon become a better place to live.

I let out a breath.

“Off we go.”

Clank, clank.

The tightly-shut iron door slowly opened, and the dreary, eerie street greeted us.

I started walking out into the fallen world with my blue eyes shimmering.