Walking Daddy

The pain from the night before still lingered, but I knew that the others would be put in greater danger if I let myself rest. I dusted off my hands and did some stretching, then approached the zombies that were still in one piece and could move around properly.

Steeling my resolve, I began to push them. It wasn’t long before my head started to hurt, and my ears were ringing constantly. Despite the growth in my physical abilities, I couldn’t get used to these headaches. Perhaps this was natural, since my brain couldn’t pack on muscle like my body did.

My physical abilities had grown exponentially after feasting on the black creature’s brain. I tensed every muscle in my body in an attempt to resist the pain.

GRR!!

Suddenly, an unfamiliar shriek cut through the air. I spun around quickly as I tried to find its source, holding onto my aching head with my left hand.

‘Where is it coming from?’

It hadn’t been a random noise, nor was it a sound that a regular zombie on the street would make. It was more sharp. In fact, it caused me to tense up and put all my senses on alert. It kept repeating, like waves crashing upon a shore. It almost felt like some sort of morse code, as though someone were trying to broadcast a message to attract my attention.

‘Am I being too sensitive?’

However, I could sense the subtle differences between zombies’ voices, the same way a human could distinguish different human voices. The zombie noises that followed this sharp cry sounded more like the cries the zombies on the streets made. It felt like the street zombies were communicating to each other.

I looked around, and eventually my gaze swept across a rooftop a distance away. There was a zombie there, looking me straight in the eye. As I continued to look at it, I suddenly felt chills run down my spine.

‘What the hell is that bastard?’

The headache that was bothering me went away instantly, replaced by alarm bells and an intense feeling of danger. Every part of my body was tense and on alert, as if signaling me to go after that zombie right away.

My muscles tensed up, and my fingertips trembled. The anxiety that had gone out like the receding tide was now rushing back at me as a tsunami.

I swallowed hard. It still hadn’t looked away from me. The zombies on the streets would normally tremble just by looking at me, but this creature was staring right at me, standing perfectly still.

‘Does it think it has a chance against me? On second thought, I suppose it won’t be wrong for it to think so.’

This creature was different from the other zombies. It was red.

* * *

I ran toward the zombie with all my might. I’d come to the conclusion that following my instincts was the best course of action for now. I wasn’t sure if I could utilize the full extent of my abilities since it was broad daylight, but I knew that the same restrictions would apply to the other zombie as well.

‘Dealing with an enemy to get rid of danger. This was the natural thing to do.’

Four hundred… three hundred… two hundred… and finally, one hundred meters. As I got closer, I identified the building that the zombie was in. I ran straight through the crumbling entryway and climbed up the stairs. The building was twenty-two stories high.

Bang!

A loud thud rang in my ears as I was climbing up the stairs. It had come from outside.

‘Is something happening outside? Should I go back down?’

No. I had to confront the zombie on the rooftop. After taking a moment to gather my thoughts, I recruited all the strength I had in my legs and continued up the stairs. Even after clearing twenty-two flights, I did not feel an ounce of fatigue.

As soon as I got to the rooftop, I looked at the spot where the zombie had been standing earlier on. However, the creature was no longer there.

‘Where’d it go, where’d it go?’

I looked around as if bewitched. No matter how hard I looked, however, I found no trace of it. It had already disappeared before I’d gotten there, as if it had already known that I would show up.

I knew that the zombies moved passively during the day, but this characteristic clearly did not apply to this particular zombie. I clenched my fists and walked to where it had been standing earlier. When I got there, I realized how it had disappeared.

As I stood at the edge of the rooftop and looked down, I saw a twisted zombie body lying dead on the ground. It had thrown itself to the first floor.

‘It committed suicide?’

Belatedly, I realized that the sound I’d heard while climbing up the stairs was its skull shattering. This realization stunned me.

‘How can this be?’

I got myself together and looked more closely at the zombie’s dead body, lying on the ground. After a moment, its red body slowly started to change color. It slowly lost its red hue and returned to its normal color, looking just like any other zombie on the streets. The blood surrounding it was the only indication to me that the zombie was there.

I collapsed to the floor, my mind going blank. I went through my memories to recall what I had figured out regarding the characteristics of zombies.

‘How is it possible for zombies to commit suicide? There’s no way in hell one would fall off the roof accidentally.’

I knew there wasn’t anything around that could have agitated it. Neither were there any birds in sight. Everything I’d assumed I’d known about them started to make no sense. I had deduced that they could only move passively, and that the best they could do during the day was walk briskly.

However, this zombie had moved actively, and had chosen to commit suicide once it realized that it couldn’t get away from me.

‘Wait, actively?’

A sudden possibility popped into my mind. The zombie had been acting unpredictably. I got to my feet so that I could examine its body lying on the ground again. There was no more red glow emanating from it.

‘Actively, or under control. It’s possible that it had been carrying out orders.’

If it had been sent here under orders by someone else, it could have been under someone else’s control, without the ability to act independently.

It had probably been given orders to yell when it found me. And then it may have been ordered to jump off the rooftop if I ran toward it.

‘A being that follows orders, along with the red glow—these prove its existence.’

Chills ran down my spine as I realized where this train of thought was leading me. My hair stood on the end, and my senses were on heightened alert.

Somewhere around here, there was a being with glowing red eyes like me. It was more organized than me and had more information about zombies than me. It was looking for special mutants like me.

I wondered why it was looking for mutants, and for what purpose. I frowned and shook my head quickly.

‘That’s not important right now. This isn’t the time to think about its cause. Let’s focus on the current situation. Concentrate!’

The important thing right now was the fact that it had found me.

* * *

I quickly made my way back down the stairs to examine the creature that wasn’t glowing red anymore. Cerebral fluid was oozing out of its cracked skull. It was no longer moving, and I didn’t notice anything special about its body. It just looked like a dead street zombie.

I wondered why it looked red to me.

‘Do enemy zombies look red to me, just as my underlings look green?’

This was all speculation, but it was the only conclusion that seemed convincing to me. I stood back up and prepared to head back to the high school.

I had to get away. I had to get away from where I was before it caught a glimpse of me.

‘This creature that’s like me—what kind of mindset does it have? Does it believe in dedicating its life for the survival of humans? Or does it threaten humans?’

There was no way of knowing. I had to evacuate everyone quickly. I didn’t have a second to lose. I ran as fast as I could to the high school, pushing every zombie I saw that had an intact body.

I had to recruit more underlings. Not necessarily to escort the people trapped in the high school back to our apartment, but to protect my people from potential danger.

By the time I made it back to the high school, I had recruited twenty-seven underlings. I knocked on the tightly-closed steel gate, accompanied by my newly-recruited underlings and the thirty others that were guarding the front entrance.

Thud, thud, thud.

After a moment, I sensed a person behind the steel gate. It opened, and I saw Lee Jeong-Uk standing there. He smirked when he noticed I had more underlings with me than before.

“I was wondering why you were taking so long. So, you recruited more underlings?”

I walked onto the field without saying a word. He noted my serious expression and mirrored it as well. “Hey, is something going on?” he asked, grabbing a hold of my shirt.

I hurried inside, gesturing to him that we would discuss the matter inside. He followed me inside with a frown, sensing that something serious was about to happen.

I went into the principal’s office and gestured for a pen. The principal took out his pen from his pocket, along with a piece of paper.

- Found Enemy

“Enemy? What enemy? The black creature?”

I sensed the fear in Lee Jeong-Uk’s voice, which was also evident in his expression. It was natural for him to react this way. He’d seen the black creature not too long ago. I shook my head while I wrote out several new letters. He watched what I was doing closely, then went out into the hallway. He wanted to call the rest of our people in.

In moments, both Lee brothers and Kang Eun-Jeong were in the principal’s office. They contemplated what I had written down. I drew some simple drawings and added a couple of words to help them understand what I was trying to say.

- Me, Same Being, Red Eyes

I drew me and the red-eyed being looking each other in the eye.

I knew the exaggerated red eyes would help them understand. Of course, this wasn’t strictly true, but I couldn’t think of a better drawing to help them understand the situation. After studying the drawing for a while, Lee Jeong-Hyuk finally let out a laugh.

“Isn’t this a good thing, then? That they’re more beings like So-Yeon’s father around.”

Lee Jeong-Hyuk’s statement drew smiles from the rest of the room. However, Lee Jeong-Uk didn’t laugh. He knew that we were now facing a ticking time bomb. The problem was that no one knew when it would blow up.

Lee Jeong-Uk was the last person to come to mind when it came to optimism. He thought about issues no one else did. He was constantly probing and doubting, until he built up enough trust. He may have seemed pessimistic, but with the world in such a state, it didn’t hurt to be careful at all times.

He rubbed his chin, then voiced out his inner thoughts. “They’re dangerous.”

After hearing what he had said, everyone stopped smiling. Nervously, Kang Eun-Jeong asked him why.

“This means that it’s a thinking zombie.”

“Well, So-Yeon’s father can think too.”

“Well, he’s a good person to begin with. There’s no way we can know if the others would be the same.”

This was enough to make the rest feel on edge.

He continued, “Imagine if one of the gangsters turned into a being similar to So-Yeon’s dad. If they turned into a zombie and knew that they could recruit underlings, wouldn’t the rest be obvious?”

Kang Eun-Jeong’s face grew pale. His statement was probably traumatic for her, but it was the perfect way to describe the current situation.

Lee Jeong-Hyuk spoke up, his expression troubled. “The zombies already enjoy killing. If they have a leader that thinks the same way, wouldn’t that be pretty serious?”

“That’s what I’m saying. That’s why he looks so troubled as well.” Lee Jeong-Uk sighed and scratched his head, annoyance written across his face. “We need to get going, and quickly. It seems like this creature is nearby. It doesn’t hurt to be cautious.”

“Alright, I’ll let the children know to get prepared.”

“Jeong-Hyuk and Eun-Jeong, pack up the food and necessities we need.”

“On it.”

After giving everyone their orders, he gripped the stainless steel spear he had brought with him. He then turned to me and asked, “Moving everyone today… That’s probably not possible, right?”

When I nodded in agreement, Lee Jeong-Uk let out a deep sigh, running his hands through his hair.

“It might be keeping an eye on us. Can you tell its underlings apart from the other zombies?”

I nodded vigorously. They looked red to me. Differentiating them from regular zombies wasn’t difficult for me. Lee Jeong-Uk nodded and took a deep breath.

“Right, you can probably recognize them, since you can tell your underlings apart from the rest.”

Lee Jeong-Uk had grasped the situation as if he could read my mind. His intuition amazed me. He took another look at my drawing, then cut to the chase.

“So, how many survivors do you think we can escort today?’

I couldn’t answer.

“No, that isn’t the right question. Can we move half of them?”

I nodded. I had fifty-seven underlings with me. If we pushed it, we could get more than half of the survivors back to the apartment.

However, it would be a disaster if the red creature attacked while I wasn’t at the school, so I had to leave several underlings behind, just enough to protect the place. All things considered, I could probably only bring a maximum of twenty underlings with me.

It was impossible to move all the survivors unless I brought more underlings. Lee Jeong-Uk sat on the floor, massaging his temples. He sighed constantly, as though running through and evaluating different scenarios in his head.

I moved next to him and placed my hand on his shoulder. I hoped it was enough to convey what I wanted to say.

‘You can’t let everyone down now. You have to stay strong.’