Walking Daddy

“AAAHHH!”

“Stay away, stay away!!”

The others on the other side of the door were going through a living hell. The people she had laughed alongside just a few hours ago were having their lives ripped away from them.

She knew that going up to the rooftop was the logical thing to do, but she could not shake the intense emotional desire to save the others. She lay there, frozen, as her mind and heart warred on.

“Group leader!”

Park Gi-Cheol’s shout came from behind her.

He grabbed Hwang Ji-Hye, hauling her off the floor and helping her up the stairs to the rooftop.

Tears flowed down her face, and she muttered constantly to herself along the way.

“I couldn’t save them. I couldn’t save any of them… I couldn’t do anything…”

Park Gi-Cheol furrowed his brow and yelled, “Get back to your senses!”

GRRR!!!

Zombies were rapidly advancing on them from the other hallway.

The first and second floors should’ve been securely barricaded to prevent such a thing. It seemed that they had come into the building through the third-floor windows.

Park Gi-Cheol pushed Hwang Ji-Hye toward the emergency exit and desperately picked up the gun he had put down earlier.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

His rounds blew through zombie foreheads with his gun in semi-automatic mode.

However, the zombie horde showed no signs of stopping, stepping over their dead comrades as they raced toward him.

Park Gi-Cheol quickly lowered his gun and headed for the emergency exit. Once through, he immediately shut the door. The sound of scratching, pounding and snarling could be heard through the iron door.

Park Gi-Cheol, his back braced against the iron door, shouted at Hwang Ji-Hye.

“How long are you going to stay like that?”

Hwang Ji-Hye finally straightened and wiped away her tears. She tightened her grip on her K2.

"Let’s go.”

Her eyes were full of determination.

Park Gi-Cheol nodded, his lips pressed tightly together.

They ran toward the rooftop, clearly knowing what to do next. They made their way up the fifth, sixth, and seventh floors. The door leading out to the rooftop was beckoning them.

Standing just outside, the guard leader was giving orders.

Once the guard leader heard footsteps making their way up the stairs, they took a look behind, and closed the door without any hesitation.

Hwang Ji-Hye hammered her fist against the iron door, utterly astonished by the absurdity of the situation.

“Guard leader, guard leader!!!”

However, no one responded.

Park Gi-Cheol noticed what was going on and joined in as well. He yelled so hard that the veins in his neck were popping out.

“You fucking bitch!!!”

But no matter how much the two of them shouted, the guard leader didn’t open the door. It was as if the guard leader had been waiting for this moment.

GRRR!!!

The zombies were now only one floor below them.

It seemed like they had taken down the iron door and made their way into the emergency stairwell.

Park Gi-Cheol tightened his grip on his K2 with his trembling hands and aimed his weapon down the stairs. His fear and anger were almost overwhelming.

Hwang Ji-Hye unclipped something from her belt.

“Cover your ears.”

"What?"

Hwang Ji-Hye pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it down. The two of them instinctively flattened themselves against the ground.

BANG!

The entire building shook as if an earthquake had struck, and cement dust was blown everywhere.

Hwang Ji-Hye coughed as she peered down to the floor below. There was a thick cloud of dust, almost too thick to see anything through it. Park Gi-Cheol just about managed to stay conscious, and joined her in looking for the zombies.

Most of the stairs had been blasted away, and the zombies that were trying to make it to the rooftop had fallen all the way to the ground floor. However, some of the zombies had jumped across the large gap and were crawling up to the other side of the blasted stairs.

Despite the damage done to the stairs, it seemed impossible to completely cut off the zombie advance.

Hwang Ji-Hye pointed her gun at the zombies and fired desperately at them.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Her muzzle flashed incessantly, and the echoes of her shots were deafening within the enclosed space.

Firing in a tightly-closed area like this stairwell was harmful to the survivors.

The desperate fight for their survival had begun.

* * *

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

A stage-two mutant came walking in from Ttukseom Station.

Once Kim Hyeong-Jun saw Mood-Swinger, he beamed as if he already knew something good was about to happen.

‘Mood-Swinger!’

“Losing… Gains…?”

Mood-Swinger’s expression grew puzzled as it saw all the zombies gathered at the intersection of Seongsu Station. Mood Swinger sucked its fingers and stared blankly at Kim Hyeong-Jun.

Kim Hyeong-Jun pointed to the red zombies that were within range and gave it an order.

‘Mood-Swinger, knock down all of them.’

When it was given orders, its eyes suddenly changed.

Mood-Swinger reached its right arm out and began to move.

Thud, thud, thud, thud!!!

Each time Mood-Swinger’s foot hit the ground, it cracked the asphalt and sent chunks of debris flying in all directions. As it stormed forward, it started to pick up speed. The sight of it was terrifying.

It was an enormous, hulking monster that was three meters tall, but was capable of covering one hundred meters in five seconds.

Crack, crack!!!

"Losing… Gains!!!"

Mood-Swinger’s penchant for destruction was out of this world.

It swept its arms about, leaving almost nothing behind wherever it struck. With its arms, thick as baobab trees, it crushed zombie bodies, smashed their bones to bits, and blasted them to pieces.

Zombies were flung mercilessly left and right, smashing into buildings and splattering like mosquitoes at the impact.

Kim Hyeong-Jun’s jaw fell open as he took in the destructive power of Mood-Swinger. It was like an armored tank, wading into a horde of enemies that were only armed with bamboo spears and crushing them.

Kim Hyeong-Jun smiled.

‘Eat as many red zombies as you want.’

Having received the go-ahead to gorge itself, Mood-Swinger’s smile widened, and it began to swipe away at the zombies even more vigorously.

With that, Kim Hyeong-Jun scaled a tall building to survey the situation elsewhere. As he redistributed his forces, he noticed two survivors running across the rooftops.

He saw the guard leader and a mysterious man running for their dear lives, not daring to look back.

‘Where are they going?’

Kim Hyeong-Jun ran toward them.

When Kim Hyeong-Jun leaped in to block their way, the guard leader fell backward in surprise, as if they had seen a ghost.

Kim Hyeong-Jun took out his notepad and quickly wrote down some words.

- Where’s the group leader?

“De.. Dead!” the guard leader stammered.

Kim Hyeong-Jun’s eyes grew wider, and he continued to ask questions.

- Where’s Park Gi-Cheol? He was with the group leader.

“He probably died with her!”

- And where are you going? What about the others?

“There’s no hope. We have to get back to the shelter right now!”

Kim Hyeong-Jun frowned as he listened to the guard leader. He looked over at the other unknown man, who shifted his eyes and looked away.

Kim Hyeong-Jun could tell that they were lying to him.

He looked at the unknown man and asked him a question instead.

- Are the others dead as well?

“Oh, no… We’re…”

- Are the others dead? Yes or no.

“No…”

- Then you’re telling me that you two are leaving everyone else behind to die while you two bastards are running for your lives?

Kim Hyeong-Jun gritted his teeth, and the unknown man pointed his K2 rifle at him.

“Don’t… Don’t get in our way! Step aside if you don’t want your head blown off!”

The muzzle of his rifle was shaking violently.

The mysterious man had lost his sanity, and was now like a startled dog running around in circles.

Kim Hyeong-Jun’s body trembled violently as he realized how pathetic this man was. He leaped in front of the man and planted a fist into his abdomen.

“Fu….!”

The man vomited blood and collapsed on the spot.

Kim Hyeong-Jun bit off the man\'s head without the slightest hesitation. He crunched down on the man’s skull, and his Adam’s Apple moved violently.

“Ha…”

Kim Hyeong-Jun smiled at the guard leader, as if he had just eaten a sweet, fluffy pancake.

The guard leader screamed at the top of their lungs.

“AHHH! You killed a person! This bastard killed a person!”

“Ha… This motherfucker.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun crouched in front of the guard leader.

“I never did like you.”

“HEEK!”

“You should thank Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok. If it weren’t for him, you would’ve been dead a long time ago. By my hand, of course.”

“...!”

“If you want to make it through this alive, tell me where the group leader is right now. I would like to see her body to verify if she’s dead, at least.”

* * *

My eyes went wide, and I hurriedly raised my right arm to block the seventh officer’s mouth with my elbow.

As she sank her teeth into my right arm, I smacked her across the temple with my left hand. Her pupils quivered and I felt her grip loosen for a split second. I kept at it and punched the seventh officer in the face once again. The seventh officer leaped back, her left hand going to her forehead.

I knew that hitting her in other areas of her body would not cause pain, but the temples were adjacent to the brain, so my strike must have made her feel something, at least.

The seventh officer shook her head violently as though trying to regain some sense of composure, then she glared at me, panting heavily.

I propped my upper body up and spat, trying to rid my mouth of the fishy taste.

I had trouble focusing my vision. I couldn’t tell if it was because my nose had been shattered earlier.

Pshhh…

Steam began to gush from the stump of the seventh officer’s right arm.

Similarly, my injuries also began to emit steam.

I wondered who had the upper hand if we weren’t able to regenerate, and had to continue to fight in our current states.

The seventh officer, with no right arm?

Or myself, missing one foot at the ankle, a flattened nose, a mangled right arm, and a hole through my stomach?

I had to buy time somehow. Given the state of things, I knew that continuing the fight would be terrible for me.

The seventh officer, realizing that she had the upper hand, rushed toward me before my body had the time to regenerate. With both of us still a mess, she obviously held the advantage, as her body was less of a wreck than mine.

I gritted my teeth and sent out orders to my underlings through my mind.

‘Mutants, to the rail tracks this instant!’

I realized that I didn’t have to fight the seventh officer one-on-one.

I had to make use of my mutants to regain the advantage.

The enemy’s vanguard did not have any mutants amongst their ranks, and the ordinary ones couldn’t climb up to the tracks that were fifteen meters above the ground.

I had mutants, and it was time to use them to my advantage.

Before I knew it, the seventh officer was in front of me. Her glowing red eyes flashed, and she threw a punch at my stomach.

I knew that if I got punched in the stomach again, my ribs would shatter, and my breathing would be severely hampered, especially on such a cold and windy day.

I quickly turned to avoid her attack. It didn’t help that I was missing a foot at the ankle. I was barely able to move around.

I just managed to sidestep her attack, but I lost my balance again and collapsed to the ground.

Without the slightest hesitation, the seventh officer raised her left foot and slammed it toward my face.

Thud!

I hurriedly rolled aside to avoid the deadly stomp. However, I could not hold off the attacks that followed.

The seventh officer fastened her legs to my upper body to hold me still, and used her left arm to rain blows onto my head and chest.

I tried my best to avoid her attacks, as though she were playing whack-a-mole. However, it was impossible to dodge all of her attacks.

The seventh officer’s fist connected with my face again, and I could feel my vision and mind grow blurry.

“Ka…!”

I coughed up blood, trying to follow her movements through my blurry vision. With each hit, I lost some ability to dodge the subsequent ones.

My face was becoming numb.

My mind and body began to sink into a deep abyss, devoid of pain and despair.

I wondered if I would die if I fainted right then.

KIAAA!!!

At that moment, my five mutants made their way up to the tracks and came running toward me at once.

Their appearance gave the seventh officer some pause, but then she started hitting me harder, getting even more worked up.

“Die already, you bastard!!!”

She was right. If I died, she wouldn’t have to deal with the mutants.

Perhaps she believed she’d made a wise decision… But in the current situation, hers was miles away from being the right one.

If she couldn’t kill me within ten seconds, she would have to retreat and buy time for herself to regenerate.

I stopped trying to defend myself and stared directly at her fist, which was aimed right at me.

The seventh officer smiled, probably thinking that I was exhausted, and drove her fist straight down into my face, trying to put an end to our fight.

Ding!

I twisted my head and avoided her punch.

Her fist hit the solid metal tracks below my head. I wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip, and clamped my jaws around her wrist. Her eyes went wide, and she desperately tried to pull her hand away. But the harder she tried, the deeper my teeth sank into her flesh.

I looked at her through the corner of my eye, my mouth still clamped onto her wrist like a vise.

The seventh captain raised her right foot and let out a monstrous scream, as if she had lost her mind.

She was about to crush my face.

Just then, my mutants arrived and bit into her upper body.

“GWAAA!”

The seventh officer was now dealing with five mutants.

I propped my upper body up with my trembling left arm.

I knew my mutants were strong, but once her body regenerated, I knew the tables would turn right away. After all, I’d been able to easily take care of three stage-one mutants back in Shelter Seoul Forest.

My blurry vision barely swam into focus, and I flew toward the seventh officer.

The seventh officer was busy dealing with my five mutants, and she seemed to miss the fact that I was racing toward her. She exposed her vulnerable side to me.

Without the slightest hesitation, I bit into the seventh officer\'s neck.

She screamed at the top of her lungs and went into a panic, twisting her entire body around and trying to fight back.

I bit down even harder, my glowing red eyes flashing.

I was never going to let go, no matter what.

Sszak!

I was finally able to rip out her neck.

“GAAA! KA! KAAA!!!”

The seventh officer collapsed and began to squirm and struggle. The mutants stopped their attacks and looked at the seventh officer twitching.

Blood gushed out of her neck like a fountain and soon soaked the rusty train tracks.

I spit the bitterness from my mouth and wiped away the blood smeared across my lips. Even with my nose in the state it was, I could smell the pungent blood.

As I limped toward the seventh officer, my mutants made way.

I panted while I looked at the seventh officer’s face. The seventh officer’s eyes were full of hate, even in her last moments.

I wondered where this hatred was directed at.

Me?

Or the world that had gone mad?

Or to the people in general, who had adapted to the madness of this world?

But all that didn’t matter anymore. I was the last one standing.

\'Farwell.\'

I clenched my fists and sent the seventh officer to her eternal rest.