Walking Daddy

Once there, we discussed the black creature in secret. Kim Hyeong-Jun explained his strategy of digging a hole and then slowly weakening its regenerative power. It sounded like a compelling and effective strategy, but there was one problem with it.

“Do you think the black creature will just stay in the hole?”

"Hmm… Now that I think about it, you do have a point, ahjussi.”

“It’s impossible to counter its power with human-made weapons. In the end, we have to be the ones to capture it and prevent it from moving.”

Trapping the black creature in a hole was pretty much an impossible strategy. Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his head and laid out another plan. The idea was to set up a trap that would pour gasoline on the black creature in an instant and then set it on fire to melt the creature. But there was a flaw in this plan as well.

“Well, you know how fast the black creature is.”

“So do you think it’ll be impossible?”

“Do you think the black creature will stand still while it sees gasoline being poured on it? Also, we have no idea how far it can move at once. How are we supposed to make a trap that can cover its entire range of movement?”

Kim Hyeong-Jun’s expression fell after listening to my feedback. He crossed his arms and leaned back on his chair. I placed my hands on my face and was lost in thought for a moment. In order to make his plans work… There was only one way.

I sighed deeply.

"Well, there’s only one of them, but we’re a team, right?”

"Uh-huh. What about that?”

“How about one of us gets beaten up while carrying the gasoline?” I said seriously.

Kim Hyeong-Jun gave me a blank look. After a moment, he swallowed and scratched his forehead.

"So, what you’re saying… Once the black creature comes, somebody pours gasoline on it while getting beaten up, then runs away?”

"Exactly. Don’t you think it’d be more realistic for someone else to hold a torch and set the black creature on fire after that person pours gasoline?”

“Well, the problem is, if that somebody gets it wrong, the person who poured the gasoline might catch fire as well.”

“That’s why that somebody has to do a good job.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun looked at me as though I was proposing something absurd. I’d brought this option up because it seemed like the most realistic solution for the current situation, but of course, the ability to execute it was limited to zombies with excellent regenerative abilities.

Kim Hyeong-Jun considered this for a while, then slowly nodded.

“I’m not entirely on board with it… But it sure would be the most certain course of action,” he said.

“Well, if we can’t chase it down or capture it, sacrificing our bodies like this would be the only way.”

“Or we could use sound.”

"Sound?" I tilted my head, and Kim Hyeong-Jun shrugged.

“Its senses are extremely sharp. Don’t you think it’ll get distracted if it suddenly hears a loud noise out of the blue while it\'s fighting?”

“So what, let’s distract the black creature by banging drums or something?”

“No, I’m saying that we should make loud noises to lure the black creature in once it comes within the radius of our trap.”

“What if it goes straight to where the sound is coming from?”

“That’s why we have to time everything perfectly. We have to pour gasoline on top of it the moment it hears the sound and panics.”

The more I listened to this plan, the more I thought that it was an idea that only Kim Hyeong-Jun could come up with. He had a lot of brilliant, original ideas. However, unless everything worked out perfectly, it would fail completely. One wrong move could also leave the person who was making the loud noises in danger.

While I rested my chin on my hands and thought about it, Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched the bridge of his nose.

“Since the person making the sound—in our case, the drummer—might be in danger, it’ll be better for Han-Sol to be in charge of that.”

“Well, that puts Han-Sol in danger…”

“Ahjussi, if there really is a black creature with black eyes on Jeju Island, we need everyone’s help in getting rid of it. Me, you, Mood-Swinger, and Ji-Eun won’t be enough to deal with it.”

“...”

“If even one of us goes down, its game is over. Jeju Island has no future.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun was right. This wasn’t the time to put anyone’s safety or comfort first. When I nodded slowly, Kim Hyeong-Jun sighed.

“Han-Sol, Mr. Kim Dae-Young, and Mr. Jeong Jin-Young… None of them know if the black creature in Jeju Island is dangerous or not,” he said. “Don’t you think that at least the zombies should know about it, even if the survivors don’t?”

“If we’re going to go with your plan, then yes,” I replied.

I took a deep breath and sighed.

“Go and tell Do Han-Sol, Kim Dae-Young, and Jeong Jin-Young about this. Don\'t forget to tell them to keep it a secret from the others.”

"Okay. Since Mr. Jeong Jin-Young is still sleeping, I\'ll let him know later on when he wakes up. Should we get to work, starting tomorrow?”

I nodded and got up from my seat. Kim Hyeong-Jun got up as well and let out a battle cry. Seeing Kim Hyeong-Jun’s bravado, I burst into laughter right away.

* * *

The next morning, at dawn, Kim Hyeong-Jun left Hotel L to clean up the zombies in Jeju City. Do Han-Sol was informed of Kim Hyeong-Jun\'s plan, and went around to every gas station to get gasoline. Meanwhile, Kim Dae-Young took charge of the hotel’s defenses, while Lee Jeong-Uk moved some of the survivors to Hotel O, which was right next to Hotel L.

He gave me a troubled look when I asked him to make a large drum, but he eventually told me that he’d look into it with Heo Seong-Min.

While everyone was working on their own thing, I ran to the duty-free shop at Jeju Airport and came back to Hotel L with all sorts of perfume. When I returned with bags full of perfume, Lee Jeong-Uk grimaced.

“Are you going to be okay? Going by yourself?” he asked.

"I’ll be alright. I’m just going to scout and come back anyway.”

“Do you know your way around? Do you have an exact route of where you’ll be going?”

“You don’t need to worry. I’ll be back before sunset tomorrow.”

Lee Jeong-Uk smacked his lips and scratched his head.

“At least tell me your exact route so that if you don\'t come back by tomorrow evening, I can send Hyeong-Jun,” he said reluctantly.

“I’m going to enter Seogwipo along the eastern coastal road. I\'ll just have a look to see how many zombies there are, take a peek at the Hound’s base, and come back along the west coastal road.”

“Are you saying you’re going to make a loop around Jeju Island? If you don\'t come back before the sunset tomorrow, I’ll send Hyeong-Jun out to the west.”

I wanted to tell him not to let Kim Hyeong-Jun come looking for me, but it seemed like agreeing with him was the only way I could set him at ease. I nodded slowly and sprayed perfume all over my body. I sprayed myself until all I could smell was perfume. I basically poured perfume over myself. Since I had to nullify the black creature’s sense of smell, I packed some spare perfume with me. I also took a map to mark the conditions of the coastal road.

When I was done with my preparations, Lee Jeong-Uk looked me right in the eyes.

“Take care of yourself.”

“Please take good care of So-Yeon and the others.”

I patted him on the shoulder and headed for the eastern coastal road. In order to fight the black creature, I knew that I needed to have a good understanding of the situation in Seogwipo. There was a good chance that the Hounds had moved north to avoid the black creature, or had evacuated to a more mountainous area. In order to protect myself from unexpected attacks, it was necessary for me to figure out where they were located.

With a flash of my blue eyes, I headed toward Seogwipo.

* * *

On the map I brought along with me, I marked the areas that seemed safe, and those that had zombies lurking around. I meticulously marked places that had zombie footsteps, and even marked places that seemed to show tracks of many people moving about.

The sandy beaches of Jeju Island, which were once crowded with people on summer vacations, were as cold as they could be. The winter wind that blew across them seemed harsher than usual. The overturned vehicles, collapsed buildings, dust and glass shards were all traces of previous human habitation. But now, without any traces of life left, Jeju Island looked like a warzone.

There were uncollected clothes hanging on clotheslines that had either turned yellow or were stained with zombie blood. As I took in Jeju Island’s horrific conditions, I felt like I was stuck in time.

Grrr… Kaaa…

Just then, I heard zombies crying from the cottage on my right. I looked toward the sound, and saw five zombies trapped in the cottage. There was an adult man, a woman, and three teenagers inside. They started banging their heads against the glass wall as if they had heard my footsteps from afar.

The zombie apocalypse had broken out just as summer had begun. Judging from their attire, it seemed like they were infected as soon as they arrived on Jeju Island to enjoy their vacation. I took a deep breath and walked toward the cottage.

Grr! Gaaa!!

As I got closer to the cottage, their throat-rending cries intensified. I brushed the dirt off the window with my palm and took a look inside. I saw a zombie lying on the floor, and a knife plunged into its head. From what I could see, it seemed like the father of this family had been bitten while fighting off an infected person who had barged into their room.

Although it seemed like the father had successfully taken care of the infected person, it was probably the father who had infected his family afterward.

GRRR!!!

The zombie, who seemed to be the father, glared at me while making throat-rending noises. His cry… It seemed like he was screaming in pain at me. Although this wasn’t part of my plan, I felt like I had to give them the rest they needed.

When I broke the window and entered, the zombies hesitated at the disgusting smell of perfume that came from my body. When they noticed my blue eyes, they began to take several steps backward.

“Enjoy the rest of your family vacation in your afterlife.”

I sighed softly and laid the entire family to rest in peace. I carefully closed their eyes for them and continued on with my way, wiping off the bloodstains on my fingertips.

I walked for quite a while along the quiet coastal road and passed Songnanpogu, the place where the Jeju Defense Unit had stayed before moving over to Hotel L. All I could see around me were regular fields and fields of rice paddy, along with damaged greenhouses. But then, I saw a unique sight to my left that made me stop in my tracks.

The stone at the entrance of the village read ‘Shinyang Village.’ Beyond Shinyang Village, I saw breakwaters and the beach. Past those, I saw some land that was shaped like a rhombus. It seemed like an island, but I wasn’t too sure. As I took a closer look, I saw a couple of hotels centered around an enormous hotel called Phoenix Seopjikoji, all built on pretty flat land.

There were also oreums[1] on the seaside, which I figured would be able to block some of the sea wind.

I wondered if this place could be our shelter. There was only one road connecting this rhombus-shaped land to Shinyang Village, and it was surrounded by the ocean in all directions. To me, it seemed like the best place for defense. In addition, there would be no need to go far to get food since there were a lot of rice paddies around Shinyang Village.

‘Let’s mark this place for now.’

I unfolded the map I had in my pocket, marked the place with a circle, and even drew an asterisk next to it. I realized that the smell of perfume had begun to fade from my body. Perhaps it was because of the harsh sea breeze. I knew what I had to do. I put on more perfume and continued moving along the coastal road.

I kept going, passing by Dongpo-gu, Onpyeong-ri Port, and a couple of other small villages. By the time I reached Hyodon-dong—after passing Sinchon-ri, Pyoseon-ri, Taeheung-ri, Namwon-ri, and many other oreums—my heightened senses began to pick up the cries of zombies. I dropped reflexively into a crouch.

I couldn\'t tell how many zombies there were exactly, but by the sound of their cries, it was more than five hundred. Their howling echoed through the clear Jeju sky. I took out my map and determined my current location. Once I passed Hyodon-dong, I would be in Seogwipo City.

I couldn’t believe that I’d stumbled on an obstacle right before my final destination, considering that nothing else had happened along the entire way. I lifted my head slightly to see where the sound was coming from. I saw a group of zombies about three hundred meters away. When I took a closer look, though, my mouth fell open.

I’d been thinking about recruiting them if they were just a bunch of regular zombies that were gathered together. To my surprise, though, the zombies looked red to me. I couldn’t help but wonder if they were part of the Southeast Gang. After all, from my information, taking Seogwipo as the center, the Southwest Gang was to the west, while the Southeast Gang was to the east. At least, this was my initial thought.

But then, however, I heard the sound of a door being smashed, accompanied by a barrage of vulgarities.

“Hey, you useless bastards! Shut the fuck up!”

When the man shouted, the group of zombies slowly fell silent. The man had red eyes. I didn’t see any other red-eyed zombies around, except for that one man. I heard that the Hounds moved in groups of at least three, but he was all alone. I couldn\'t help but wonder if he had been left behind or something. I slowly accelerated my blood flow as I tracked the man\'s movements with my eyes.

I could feel my body tingling, dying to know why he was alone. And I knew exactly how I could get the answers I needed.

I was going to ask him directly.

1. Oreums are small rising defunct volcanoes only found in Jeju. The word itself comes from the Jeju dialect. They are commonly understood as hills to outsiders. ☜