Walking Daddy

He seemed to be in his late thirties. I noticed that he kept a wary eye on us as we walked. After a moment, he cleared his throat.

“Where are you guys from? Huh?” he asked.

“We’re from Seoul.”

“Leaving Seoul and coming to Daegu… So you’re telling me that Seoul’s done for?”

I nodded. Seoul used to be home to about ten million people. A lot of people loved Seoul for its excellent infrastructure, but after the zombie virus spread, it turned into a living hell. It used to be the most populous city in Korea, and therefore the number of zombies there was second to none. The appearance of the virus had turned the place into a zombie nest.

Yoon Jeong-Ho grimaced.

“You probably came down with some hope, but as you can see, things aren’t that much better here,” he said. “Just letting you know, just in case you haven’t noticed.”

“It doesn\'t matter. The fact that it’s safer than Seoul doesn’t change.”

“Is the situation in Seoul really that bad? How bad are we talking about? It can’t be that bad.”

“Everything’s bad there.”

“Well, it\'s the same when you go to downtown Daegu. It just so happens that Daegu Airport is one of those places without a lot of people, you know, so it didn’t suffer so much damage.”

I’d assumed that an airport would have been a crowded space, but it seemed like the rural areas of Korea were different from Seoul. I nodded slowly.

"By the way, I noticed that you guys have a pistol. Where did you get it?" I asked him.

“I nicked it from a police station. Don’t you think that we should at least all have weapons to protect ourselves?”

The pistol which the woman named Min-Jeong was holding was a revolver used by the police. It was a Smith & Wesson revolver, a .38 caliber handgun. I wasn’t sure if it was the m10 or m60 model, but I knew it was an extremely practical revolver.

Yoon Jeong-Ho looked me and Kim Hyeong-Jun up and down, then asked in a rather cautious tone, "By the way… The bullets earlier, did you manage to dodge ‘em?”

“No, we both got hit.”

“Then how come you aren’t hurt, huh?”

I frowned, unsure of how to answer his question. Kim Hyeong-Jun, who was next to me, snorted.

“If we died to those kids’ toys, we wouldn’t have lasted a day in Seoul.”

“How serious is it in Seoul? Huh?”

Kim Hyeong-Jun raised his eyebrows, looking uncomfortable.

"Well… Before that, what’s up with the attitude? Why are you talking to us like you’ve known us for a long time?”

Yoon Jeong-Ho puffed out a breath and looked away. I glared at Kim Hyeong-Jun, who pouted his lower lip and shrugged.

‘That personality of his… He probably won’t be able to fix it until the day he dies.’

‘Wait, no. He still hasn’t been able to fix it even though he’s dead.’

I smacked my lips, and Yoon Jeong-Ho swallowed.

“If you don’t mind… Mister… We’ll go over the details when we arrive,” he said in a more docile tone. “There’s a lot of things I want to hear about as well.”

* * *

When I arrived at the passenger terminal with Yoon Jeong-Ho, the leaders approached me, looking serious. I could tell that Yoon Jeong-Ho was surprised by them.

He looked at my face.

“Are you coexisting with humans as well?” he asked.

"Yes."

“Perfect. That’ll certainly speed things up.”

It seemed like my prediction about the man named Jin-Young was correct. He seemed to be a zombie fighting for humans, like us. I belatedly realized that Yoon Jeong-Ho was speaking in a much more formal tone than when we’d first met him. It seemed like Kim Hyeong-Jun’s words had gotten stuck in his mind.

We all headed to the waiting room located in the corner of the terminal. We told him what had transpired in Seoul in order to make him feel more comfortable around us. He took in the whole story, then grimaced.

“I don’t know if I should be saying this… But I feel fortunate to be in Daegu,” he muttered.

I interlaced my fingers.

"It’s more than okay,” I assured him. “Now, tell us about what happened in Daegu.”

Yoon Jeong-Ho sucked on his lower lip as he thought about his response. After a moment, he sighed and began to speak.

“Daegu was safe until just about a month ago. All thanks to the air base next to Daegu Airport.”

I finally realized what the metal fence next to the airport was. They were the fences that surrounded the military base right next to the airport.

Yoon Jeong-Ho’s expression grew bitter.

“Everyone could’ve stayed safe if we stuck together,” he continued. “Everyone would\'ve stayed safe together… But some people got greedy and caused everything to burn down.”

“Was there some sort of inter-faction fighting?”

“Yes. The more our colony grew, the more the core ideals of the group began to fracture, and ultimately, some people became more greedy.”

I knew exactly what he was talking about. Fortunately, when I was with Shelter Hae-Young, there wasn’t trouble amongst the survivors. However, the current state of Survivor Rally Association—with all the survivors from Shelter Hae-Young, Silence, and Barrier together—was far from that.

Fortunately, I’d managed to ease the tension between the survivors before it became an issue, but I knew that if the Survivor Rally Organization grew bigger, it’d be difficult to keep everyone under control.

Yoon Jeong-Ho sighed.

“The soldiers with power started everything,” he continued. “At first, it was food distribution, and then the labor force. After that, the remaining survivors in Daegu began to band together.”

“You mentioned that Daegu collapsed a month ago; are you saying it was safe before then?”

“Yes. From Chilgok to Daegu Buk-gu, Jung-gu, Seo-gu, Dong-gu, and Gyeongsan… We built barbed wire fences and defensive lines for each region. And we were able to suppress the virus fairly quickly, and were able to contain its spread.”

“Then why…”

“The survivors’ anger continued to simmer and boil over, and a war broke out. It only took a single shot… After that, it was the soldiers with power versus the survivors.”

Daegu was similar to Seoul in that it followed the law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest, but there were subtle differences. Unlike Seoul, where everyone tried to survive on their own, Daegu had broken out into a civil war.

Lee Jeong-Uk, who had been all ears, spoke up.

“Even if there were far more survivors… I don’t think the survivors would’ve stood a chance against the firepower of the military.”

"You’re absolutely right. It was one-sided, and we were continually pushed back.”

Yoon Jeong-Ho bit his lip and frowned, as if remembering the past. I leaned back and crossed my arms.

At the crossroads of life and death, the ability for humans to think reasonably was like a bonfire. Once the fire died out and darkness reigned, the only thing left was complete chaos.

Yoon Jeong-Ho closed his eyes gently, took a deep breath, and continued where he had left off.

“Then about ten days ago… Something… Something happened.”

"What happened?”

“The zombies came.”

“...”

“Since Daegu is a natural basin, we all thought that we’d be safe from any big external threat once we got rid of the zombies inside. But if you think about it… Being a basin means that, once they get in, there’s no way out for us as well.”

“So you’re saying that the survivors got into a conflict, and sometime during that the zombies invaded, and it all went downhill from there.”

"Yes. The zombies established themselves in Downtown Daegu, and the remaining survivors had no choice but to flee to the outskirts.”

Yoon Jeong-Ho’s story made me tilt my head in confusion.

Something wasn’t adding up. I expected that the survivors here would’ve been run over the moment the zombies came, but they had somehow managed to survive and escape to the outskirts of Daegu.

“Tell me in detail how you escaped,” I asked with a serious expression. “There’s no way ordinary survivors could’ve survived even for half a day against a zombie wave. It would have been different if there were military troops, though.”

“The troops abandoned us early on and fled. We fled to the subway and just barely got out.”

"Subway?"

“I believe most of the survivors are staying in the subway. Those who escaped like me are staying at Ansim Station, the last stop on Line 1.”

When I heard the word ‘subway’, I instinctively looked over at Kim Hyeong-Jun. He looked back at me and smirked, as though something had crossed his mind as well.

“Ahjussi, do you remember the incident at Konkuk University Station?”

“I was thinking about the same thing too.”

Previously, when we visited Konkuk University Station, the dogs were using it as a food warehouse. But in Daegu, the subway station had been repurposed into a safe haven for the survivors. I nodded slowly and turned to Yoon Jeong-Ho.

“Then how did you get to know this person named Jin-Young?” I asked.

“Jin-Young is one of my dongsaengs I used to get along with before all of this zombie stuff happened. He was bitten by a zombie while we were escaping.” [1]

“Among the zombies that attacked Daegu, were there any zombies that had red eyes like Jin-Young?”

“I was too occupied back then, so I don’t remember. Everyone was busy trying to survive.”

“You mean the zombies were just attacking whoever they could?”

“Yes.”

Since the zombies had attacked indiscriminately, the possibility of it being a zombie wave was high. If the zombies were following orders, they wouldn’t have killed all the survivors thoughtlessly. Instead, they would have tried to capture them and store them as food for later.

I scratched my eyebrows and asked him a follow-up question.

“I want to meet this person named Jin-Young. What’s his last name?”

“Jeong Jin-Young. He’s leading the survivors at Ansim Station.”

“Could you tell me how many survivors there are over at Ansim Station and what’s your role or title there?”

“...”

Yoon Jeong-Ho looked at me nervously. He seemed to be wary now that I was asking him to provide me with details. It seemed like he was trying to figure out the intention behind my question.

I offered him a small smile.

“I don’t have anything nefarious in mind. If you feel uncomfortable with my question, you don’t have to answer.”

“The number of people there… I don’t feel comfortable sharing that information. And I don’t have a role or title. If you really want to push it, I guess I could be considered the enforcer,” Yoon Jeong-Ho replied as he rubbed his neck.

Lee Jeong-Uk, who had kept silent, threw a question at him.

"Then I’m guessing you aren’t aware of the current whereabouts of the soldiers?”

“That’s right. We’re not exactly sure where they are as well. We evacuated via the subway, but the soldiers managed to get away without using the underground network.”

“Hmm… If they retreated as soon as the zombie wave started, it’s possible that they survived and managed to make it out of the city.”

“But given the number of zombies in the city… I don’t know if they could’ve made it out of the city alive. There were so many of them, as if they’d come from somewhere else…”

“Do you have a rough estimate?”

"I wish I knew, but I honestly have no clue. I couldn’t see an end to them. I’m pretty sure that the soldiers were trapped by zombies as well.”

I rubbed my chin quietly as I considered the situation. Judging from what Yoon Jeong-Ho was telling me, the survivors at Ansim Station seemed like they still had some humanity left in them. Since it had only been about a month since they’d begun to experience the realities of the zombie world, they wouldn’t have fallen apart unless they were mentally weak. However, I still wasn’t sure if I should take them in or not.

I was sure that I’d have a better idea after I met this man named Jeong Jin-Young to get more details, but I wanted to get a rough estimate of how many people were in their group. At least I finally realized why the woman named Min-Jeong had reacted so sensitively earlier on.

She’d probably lost someone special just ten-or-so days ago. It was only natural for her to have a hostile, aggressive attitude toward zombies.

While I was lost in thought, Kim Hyeong-Jun frowned and got up from his seat. Without saying a word, he ran out into the terminal building. It seemed like his underlings had detected movement within their range.

I got up and looked at Lee Jeong-Uk.

“Evacuate everyone.”

“What do you mean? There’s nowhere to evacuate to.”

“Gather them here so that they aren’t scattered all over the place.”

With that, I followed Kim Hyeong-Jun outside. Beyond the jet-black runway, I saw a faint red light. There was a red-eyed zombie, surrounded by Kim Hyeong-Jun’s underlings. I could already tell who he was.

I was pretty sure that the woman named Min-Jeong had told Jeong Jin-Young about Yoon Jeong-Ho’s trip to Daegu Airport. The man being beaten up right then had to be him.

Kim Hyeong-Jun seemed to come to the realization as well, and belatedly stopped his underlings from attacking. However, the man was already lying on the ground, covered in blood.

I made my way over to where he was, and Kim Hyeong-Jun gave me a troubled look.

"Ahjussi,” he said.

"What is it?"

"This person… He hasn\'t even grown his teeth yet.”

If his teeth hadn\'t grown out, it meant that the maximum number of underlings he could control was less than five hundred. He was covered in blood, just barely breathing. He’d taken a serious beating in that short moment of time.

I looked down at the man.

“Can you speak?” I asked.

The man remained silent as blood dripped from his flesh. He was arching one of his eyebrows. It seemed he was amused that I was talking to him. I looked at him right in the eyes.

\'Look into my eyes and communicate with your mind.’

‘What, what is this…?’

\'I\'ll explain later. Let’s cut to the chase. Are you Jeong Jin-Young?’

Jeong Jin-Young glared at me, all flustered.

‘How do you know me? You, you… You’d better not have done anything to Jeong-Ho hyung!’

Judging by the fact that he still has the strength to get angry, it didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with his brain. Feeling relieved, I brushed his anger aside.

\'Can you walk?\' I asked.

‘...’

\'Follow me if you can walk.\'

\'Just kill me, you son of a bitch.’

\'I\'ll lead you to Mr. Yoon Jeong-Ho. Just follow me.’

Jeong Jin-Young pressed his lips tightly together. His expression seemed to suggest that he was itching for a fight. It didn’t take him long to limp to his feet. He looked into my eyes.

\'What… What the fuck are you, you bastard?’ he asked.

\'I swear, if you curse one more time, you’re going to get schooled.’

‘...’

Jeong Jin-Young swallowed and stared blankly at my face. He spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground.

\'If you’re lying… I’m going to kill you.’

I sighed and shook my head. All the people I’d encountered in Daegu… What was this thing about wanting to kill me the first time they met me?

The woman named Min-Jeong, and now Jeong Jin-Young… Everyone seemed to have a rough mouth.

‘Do I really look like a villain or something?’

I brushed away the bitterness in my heart and headed back to the airport.

1. Dongsaeng is a gender neutral term to refer to someone who is younger than oneself, most commonly one’s younger brother/sister. In this case, it is being used for someone who is just younger than the speaker, so the speaker is not referring to a family member. ☜