Walking Daddy

This was the name printed on the front gate of the school. It was a rectangular building with four floors, and the cafeteria and gym was located next to the main building.

After Kim Hyeong-Jun confirmed that there weren’t any survivors in the school, he pushed the zombies into an empty classroom. He put one hundred and twenty zombies in each classroom, taking up a total of fifteen classrooms. In order to keep the zombies under control, Do Han-Sol placed four of his underlings in each classroom as guards. Once they had more or less settled them in, Kim Hyeong-Jun turned to Do Han-Sol.

“We’re done here, right?” he asked.

“Yes. What else do we have left to do?”

“We have to go to the rental car company. We have to bring all the zombies that are there back here as well.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun nodded, and the two of them headed to the rental car company. Kim Hyeong-Jun was able to recognize the surroundings and the shapes of the buildings more clearly this time, compared to before. Perhaps it was because the moon was shining more brightly.

While Kim Hyeong-Jun made his way to the rental car company, he tried to identify which of the buildings he passed could be useful in the future. Next to Namnyeong High School, which was being used as a zombie camp, was Jeju Halla Hospital. Perhaps they could get medical supplies or equipment from there if they ran out.

One thing Kim Hyeong-Jun noticed was that Jeju City had a lot of hotels, living up to its reputation as a tourist destination. He could get the survivors extra blankets and pillows from these other hotels when the weather got colder. He also saw a couple of apartments on the way, but he simply decided to ignore them because it would be troublesome to relocate the zombie camp. Also, he was lazy.

He saw gas stations almost everywhere, so it seemed like they wouldn’t face a problem with gasoline if they ever needed it urgently. He passed at least ten gas stations from the Northwest Gang’s base to the rental car company. Suddenly, Kim Hyeong-Jun stopped in his tracks and looked back.

\'Wait. Gas stations?\'

Do Han-Sol looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun, wondering why he had stopped.

"Why, was there something behind us?” he asked.

“Han-Sol, go ahead and tie up the zombies first.”

“Where are you going off to again? What if you get caught by the black creature?”

“I’ll be back before you know it. I’m just going to go check out the gas station over there and come back, so wait for me.”

Do Han-Sol raised his eyebrows and tilted his head when he heard him mention the gas station. Kim Hyeong-Jun said that he’d explain everything later and headed straight for the gas station. When he got there, he noted that there was plenty of gasoline left.

Kim Hyeong-Jun assumed that, when the zombie virus spread across Jeju Island, the survivors on the island must’ve been possessed by the idea of having to leave the island. It would have only been natural for them to head straight to the airport or a port to leave the island, and it would not have occurred to them to loot a gas station. His assumption proved to be correct.

After Kim Hyeong-Jun confirmed that there was plenty of gasoline left, he ran back to Do Han-Sol.

“Did you find what you needed?” asked Do Han-Sol.

“Yeah. Just give me one second,” Kim Hyeong-Jun answered vaguely.

He walked over to the zombies that were now free from their chain of command. The soil they stood on top of was soft and easy to dig into. He didn’t have to do any more analysis, since the Northeast gang lieutenant and his underlings had been able to dig into the ground in thirty minutes and bury themselves in it.

Kim Hyeong-Jun continued to walk around, pressing his feet against the ground. Do Han-Sol, who had been eyeing him curiously, spoke up.

“What’s this all about? Are you looking for coins or something? Don\'t be lazy and just help me.”

“Let’s start digging here and make a trap.”

"Huh?"

Kim Hyeong-Jun’s voice took on a note of confidence.

“For the black creature, I mean. Let’s dig a hole in the ground to trap it, pour oil on it, and finally burn it to ashes.”

It was a rather simple problem, once he thought about it. The black creature\'s overwhelming power and mobility was threatening, but more terrifying was its regenerative ability. In other words, it had endurance and stamina like no other. Even if Kim Hyeong-Jun and Lee Hyun-Deok took turns fighting, there was no way they could keep up with the regenerative abilities of a black creature with black eyes.

Since that was the case, Kim Hyeong-Jun had thought of the possibility of exhausting it; in other words, slowly weakening its limited regenerative power by burning it. That would give them a decent chance of winning, even if their opponent were a black creature with black eyes.

All of this went through his head as he began to imagine the scenario in his mind. But Do Han-Sol, who had been waiting for him, sighed.

“Just come on and help me,” he said. “Let\'s hurry up and head back. We’ve been out for so long already. What if we actually run into the black creature? We don’t even have Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok with us.”

“Okay, okay, Mr. Broken Recorder. I got you,” grumbled Kim Hyeong-Jun as he helped Do Han-Sol tie up the zombies.

In all, they tied up over two thousand zombies. Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his head with a troubled expression. He knew that it was a little much to bring all of these zombies back to Namnyeong High School.

Do Han-Sol noted his expression and spoke up.

“There’s a school between the airport and Hotel L. Should we go there?” he offered.

“Between the airport and hotel? Wouldn’t that be too close to the hotel? I don’t know how I feel about having a zombie camp near the survivors.”

“It\'s much closer to the airport than the hotel. And besides, these guys are all tied up with rope, and my underlings will be there to watch over them. I’m not sure what you’re so worried about.”

Do Han-Sol’s voice rang with confidence. Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his forehead and considered the situation for a moment. After a little while, he let out a sigh and nodded.

“Okay. Let’s do that, then. Besides, if we get back too late, Mr. Lee Jeong-Uk will probably ask us all sorts of questions. Let’s wrap things up quickly.”

“Are you uncomfortable around Mr. Lee Jeong-Uk?”

"No, it\'s not that I’m not comfortable... I don’t know. I prefer fighting zombies to talking to people.”

Do Han-Sol smirked at Kim Hyeong-Jun’s half-assed answer.

“Is it because he hit you with the butt of his rifle back in Gwangjang-dong?”

“Geez, you still remember that?”

"It’s not? Oh, nevermind. I know you’re not someone who dwells on the past like that.”

“Whatever, man. Let’s just get going to school already.”

Do Han-Sol led the way with a playful smile.

“Alrighty, it’s this way.”

One of Kim Hyeong-Jun’s charms was that he could make the people around him crack jokes. Not in a bad way, but just harmless mischief.

Kim Hyeong-Jun followed Do Han-Sol as he made a note of the position of the moon. It had changed a lot from the last time he had seen it, which suggested that a lot of time had already passed. That also meant that Lee Hyun-Deok would regain consciousness soon.

Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his head and for a moment, hesitating. He made a mental note of the number of underlings he had. He registered eleven hundred underlings at the Northeast Gang’s base. After eating the brain of the Northeast Gang officer, he had taken command of eleven hundred underlings at once.

Kim Hyeong-Jun sent them an order via telepathy.

‘Soon, some zombies that are purple will arrive. Once they show up, kill the rest of the zombies that aren’t purple.’

Lee Hyun-Deok had eaten the brains of the Northeast Gang leader and his lieutenants. Assuming that they controlled about two thousand underlings in total, there would certainly be some that would not come under Lee Hyun-Deok’s command.

The maximum number of underlings Lee Hyun-Deok could control was twenty-three hundred. He already had eleven stage-one mutants and Ji-Eun, which meant that he could exert control over another seventeen hundred underlings. That left roughly three hundred zombies that would turn into street zombies without any chain of command.

In order to prevent the situation at the E-Mart in Nohyeong Ogeori from occurring again, Kim Hyeong-Jun chose to order his underlings to get rid of the zombies that did not eventually fall under Lee Hyun-Deok’s control.

The school that Do Han-Sol had mentioned was Jeju National University High School. It was located on the east side of Jeju Airport, and there was a large gym across from the main building. Kim Hyeong-Jun went into the gym’s storage room and came out with a shovel and some jump ropes.

Do Han-Sol looked at the things Kim Hyeong-Jun brought out with him and tilted his head.

“I kind of get why you took the shovel; but what’s up with the jump ropes?” he asked.

“I want to give them to the kids. They’re cooped up in the hotel, so I thought they’d lack exercise.”

Do Han-Sol snorted.

“You know, you’re very meticulous at times.”

He suggested that they get going, and with that, Do Han-Sol and Kim Hyeong-Jun pushed the zombies into the first floor of the school, and placed four underlings in each classroom, just like they had done at Namnyeong High School. Once they wrapped up and got back to Hotel L, the survivors who had filled up the hotel lobby earlier on were packing up and returning to their rooms.

Lee Jeong-Uk saw Kim Hyeong-Jun and Do Han-Sol return.

“I thought you said you’d be back after some scouting,” he said, raising his eyebrows at them. “It seems like you got yourselves into something else as well.”

“We had several things to take care of.”

Do Han-Sol and Kim Hyeong-Jun were covered with zombie blood. Lee Jeong-Uk didn’t bother to ask for details; he sighed instead.

“You two should take a shower first, then let me know what happened.”

“There are showers here?”

“They say that they pump groundwater up, but I don’t know how it works either.”

“Are they pumping up Jeju Samdasoo?” [1]

Kim Hyeong-Jun chuckled at his lousy joke, and Do Han-Sol sighed. On the other hand, Lee Jeong-Uk smirked.

“Don’t joke around,” he said, “and go wash up.”

“Ah, you guys are boring,” Kim Hyeong-Jun grumbled as he headed to the shower room.

* * *

I looked around with bleary eyes. Kim Hyeong-Jun was nowhere to be seen, and the pantry was as quiet as it could be.

I hurriedly got myself up and left the pantry. I saw Lee Jeong-Uk in the lobby, a distance away. He looked back at me and smiled.

“Did you have a good night’s sleep?” he asked.

“Where’s Hyeong-Jun?”

“He’s with Han-Sol, washing up.”

“Washing up? Did they go somewhere?”

“They went outside to scout, but came back with zombie blood all over themselves.”

I knew that I never asked them to go scouting. In fact, I had told them to reinforce the defenses while I was gone. Kim Hyeong-Jun and Do Han-Sol must have had a valid reason for going out scouting, but I needed to know why they’d come back from fighting zombies this late at night.

“Where are the showers?”

“There’s a beach shower area next to the beach over there.”

I headed to where Lee Jeong-Uk pointed. The beach was right on the other side of the hotel, across the four-lane road. Just like he said, there were beach showers there. When I entered the men\'s shower room, I heard Kim Hyeong-Jun and Do Han-Sol.

“Oh geez, this feels nice.”

“Don’t you think the water’s too cold? It’s like ice.”

The two of them were washing themselves by pouring water into washbasins and pouring the cold water on them with scoopers. I took a deep breath.

“Where did you two go?” I said.

"Huh? Ahjussi, when did you wake up?” Kim Hyeong-Jun asked as he put his scoop down.

I gave him a rather serious expression, which Kim Hyeong-Jun took note of. He smiled lightly and explained all they had done that night. Their explanation left me with nothing to say, not because I was dumbfounded, but because they had taken care of everything perfectly while I’d been unconscious.

The black creature was a threat, but more mutants would also be annoying and difficult to handle. If even a stage-two mutant appeared, it would be difficult to leave the hotel and focus on offense. I realized that I had underestimated them, and coughed in embarrassment.

"Good work,” I said. “Great job."

“Woah ahjussi, are you complimenting us? What’s happening?”

“It’s not like I nag you and give you a hard time because I want to. It’s because you guys make me nag you.”

“Anyway, ahjussi, you can wait at the hotel. I\'ll wash up and be there right away."

“Okay. You did a good job too, Han-Sol.”

Do Hansol nodded and smiled heartily. With that, I left the two of them and went back to Hotel L. The moment I returned, Lee Jeong-Uk called my name from the lobby.

“Hey, So-Yeon’s dad.”

“What is it?”

“I’m thinking of moving everyone to Hotel O tomorrow morning. That’s okay, right?”

“Yeah, let’s do that. Where is Kim Dae-Young?”

“Still on the rooftop, keeping a watch on the surroundings.”

Kim Dae-Young was still on guard, just as I’d told him to before I’d gone to sleep. He was doing his best to follow me. To be frank, I was worried if we would be able to gel since we’d never done anything all together. As of that moment, though, I was satisfied with the fact that he’d followed my orders and was doing his best to carry out his duties.

Relying on each other while in a fight against enemies was a whole different story, but in terms of coordinating as a team on these organizational matters, I was satisfied. I nodded slowly and asked Lee Jeong-Uk another question.

“What about So-Yeon?”

“She’s in her room sleeping. Why? Do you want to see her?”

I nodded with a faint smile, and Lee Jeong-Uk smiled in return.

“She’s upstairs. Room 1608.”

"Thanks.”

As I headed toward the stairs, Lee Jeong-Uk grabbed my sleeve.

“Uh, wait.”

"What?"

“You want to meet So-Yeon looking like that?”

I looked down to see what he was talking about, and realized that I had dried zombie blood stains all over my body. I scratched my forehead and asked Lee Jeong-Uk for a favor.

“Do you have an extra pair of clothes and a towel?”

"Yeah, wait here. I\'ll bring them to you.”

Lee Jeong-Uk took care of So-Yeon more meticulously than I did. Back when I was still working, my wife would slap me on the back and say that I smelled like alcohol every time I tried to hold So-Yeon in my arms after a company dinner. She would always yell at me to wash up first.

I had no clue why this memory of mine suddenly came into my mind. Perhaps it was because I felt relieved by his family-oriented actions. Seeing him and the way he acted, I was growing more and more certain that he would take good care of So-Yeon even if I disappeared one day. He thought of things that I didn’t even think of, and every time he showed his attention to detail, my trust in him grew stronger and stronger.

Since I’d gotten a good rest after eating the enemy leader’s brain, I was going to give it my all until the day came when we could all live in peace. That was the right thing to do for the people here, and it was the only thing I could do for the people who were protecting So-Yeon.

1. Jeju Samdasoo is a mineral water brand produced by Jeju Province Development Corporation. It is similar to Fiji water. ☜