Walking Daddy

Lee Jeong-Uk made a big loop to his right as he shot the zombies in their heads. He was moving along the Han River, fully aware that he might get surrounded by zombies if he cut through the middle.

After a moment, Lee Jeong-Hyuk caught up and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his brother, firing at the approaching zombies. Some of the other zombies that were surrounding the pavilion heard the Lee brothers’ approach and turned to stare at them. In an instant, they charged at the Lee brothers.

Lee Jeong-Uk watched them approach, then pulled out a grenade from his belt and threw it at the flat ground.

Bang!!

The explosion created a thick cloud of dust as torn zombie limbs went flying everywhere. However, it was impossible to stop all the zombies with one grenade. The remaining zombies moved into the wetlands and continued to advance on the Lee brothers.

The moment they stepped into the wetlands, though, their movements slowed significantly. Perhaps it was because their legs were stuck in the mud that covered the wetlands. The Lee brothers, realizing that this was their chance, composed themselves and carefully picked off the zombies.

Tick, tick, tick–

Out of all the things that could’ve happened, Lee Jeong-Uk ran out of rounds. He quickly replaced his magazine, but the zombies were already across the stretch of swamp. Things were not going his way.

Bang! Bang, bang!

Bullets whizzed in from the left flank of the approaching zombies, piercing through their temples.

“Get down!” yelled Park Gi-Cheol.

Park Gi-Cheol pulled the pin out of the grenade he was holding and threw it toward the swamp. The Lee brothers threw themselves to the ground at once.

Boom!!!

Muddy water shot up into the air, along with an explosion of zombie limbs. The Lee brothers scrambled into a kneeling position and continued firing.

Bang, bang, bang, bang–

The K3 gunners in the pavilion noticed the Lee brothers and began offering fire support.

It seemed like the impossible was slowly becoming possible. A gap began to form between the zombies surrounding the pavilion. If they held on just a bit longer, they’d be able to get to the pavilion.

Crack!

However, the pavilion wasn’t willing to wait for them. Its pillars began to crack, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the pavilion wouldn’t stay standing for much longer. It was a matter of time before the entire pavilion collapsed, and it would be over for Bae Jeong-Man, the K3 gunners and their spotters.

Sweat trickled down Lee Jeong-Uk’s forehead. He was beginning to think that he wouldn’t make it to them in time.

Zoom–

Just then, a loud drone filled his eardrums. It was so loud that it felt as though the earth was shaking. Through the ringing in his ears, though, he heard a rather familiar noise. He instinctively looked up at the sky. A sound he’d never expected to ever hear again was coming from up in the sky.

Zoom–!

A huge transport plane was descending towards Gimpo Airport. All the zombies in the wetland park stopped moving as the sound of the plane’s engines filled their ears. They stared at the plane, then began chasing after the plane at once, as if hypnotized. They were like iron filings being pulled toward an extremely strong magnet.

Just like that, they all rushed straight toward Gimpo Airport, completely disregarding the people who were still in the wetland park. Lee Jeong-Uk stared wide-eyed at the zombies, then looked at Bae Jeong-Man. Bae Jeong-Man’s eyes met his, full of surprise as well. His soldiers quickly ran to safety.

Lee Jeong-Uk took care of the remaining zombies and approached Bae Jeong-Man. As the two got closer, Bae Jeong-Man started swearing at the top of his lungs.

“Why did you come back, you fucking idiot?!”

“I never ordered you to die!”

The two hurled vulgarities the moment they met, but then exchanged a firm hug, as if they were both relieved that they were alive. Bae Jeong-Man regarded the Lee brothers and Park Gi-Cheol silently, his face full of emotion. It was easy to see that he was moved by their actions. The K3 gunners and spotters teared up as they realized that they were still alive.

After a moment, Lee Jeong-Hyuk, who was standing next to Park Gi-Cheol, pointed toward the plane that was flying away.

“Isn’t that a military cargo plane?” he asked.

"Yeah.”

“I wonder where it came from all of a sudden.”

“How should I know? But one thing’s for sure. Now we know there are other survivors in this world besides us.”

Regardless of where the military cargo plane had come from, who was flying it, or how it had come here, Bae Jeong-Man and his men were saved because of its sudden appearance. However, since the plane had dragged all the zombies to Gimpo Airport, they had to change their destination.

Lee Jeong-Uk took a deep breath and let it out, then spoke up.

“Let’s get back to the survivors first. We can think about what comes next afterward.”

* * *

Thud!

Kim Hyeong-Jun coughed out blood and fell to the ground. The boss didn’t let the opportunity slip by and charged toward Kim Hyeong-Jun. Recognizing what he was going to do, I shot toward him and kicked him in the knee. The boss collapsed to the ground, accompanied by the sound of a log breaking. I pressed forward, twisting my upper body to kick him. He quickly brought his hands up to his chest to protect himself.

Pow!

His ribs broke and he flew twenty meters to the right. However, he coughed out some blood and immediately got to his feet.

‘Man, just die already.’

He was clinging on for dear life. Despite the beating he was receiving, he kept on getting up. I looked over at Kim Hyeong-Jun.

"How are you holding up?”

"Ha… That bastard… He’s like a cockroach, damn it.”

I couldn’t agree more. Despite our concerted attacks, he kept on getting up over and over again. I wondered if he had more blood than we did, since he was able to constantly get back on his feet.

Steam rose from the boss’ body again as he regenerated his damaged knees and ribs. He glared at the two of us.

“Why? Are you two tired already? Is this all you’ve got?”

"Nah, I mean, we can’t seem to stop. It\'s fun bullying you,” I said with a sneer.

The boss clenched his fists and prepared to attack. He was holding on longer than I expected, but he was regenerating more slowly now. When Kim Hyeong-Jun saw the boss getting ready to fight, he spat out some phlegm and got up as well.

“Ahjussi, don’t you think he’s pretending to be okay? Like on purpose?” he whispered to me.

"Why?"

“Look at his legs. He’s shaking.”

His words prompted me to take a closer look at the boss’ legs. It seemed like he hadn’t been able to completely regenerate his broken legs. I tilted my head.

“I wonder why he’s trying so hard to stand up again?” I asked Kim Hyeong-Jun.

“He wants us to feel afraid. That way, we’ll expose our weaknesses, and he’ll go after them.”

I snorted. "Huh. Us, getting afraid? Of what? Him?”

Kim Hyeong-Jun smiled.

“I mean, it seems like his strategy’s worked so far.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

Come to think of it, though, what Kim Hyeong-Jun was saying was something rather simple. The Family operated under a strict hierarchical system. The low-level zombies were afraid of the dong leaders, while the dong leaders were afraid of the officers, and the officers were afraid of the boss.

Because of this, everyone in the organization probably trembled in fear at the boss’ slightest frown, since more of them had probably joined up in order to survive, and not because they genuinely wanted to become part of the Family.

They were the perfect example of how a vertically-structured organization could go wrong. On the one hand, his useless intimidation didn’t work on us, since we’d started from the bottom and made our way up by relying on our own efforts to grow stronger. And since we gave our all every time and always believed in the smallest possibilities when going through hardships, his meager threats were meaningless to us.

I looked over at Kim Hyeong-Jun.

“Let’s finish him already. I thought he was holding on because he had something up his sleeve, but he didn’t have anything prepared. All he has is some guts.”

"Okay.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun gritted his teeth and his blue eyes flashed. Steam rose from my body as I accelerated my blood flow as well.

Bang!!!

We both launched ourselves toward the boss at the same time, as though we’d made some sort of unspoken agreement. The boss’ eyes widened, and he quickly crouched down and jumped into the air. I tracked him with my eyes, then grabbed Kim Hyeong-Jun’s clothes and spun, launching him at the boss as though throwing a shotput.

Kim Hyeong-Jun flew toward the boss and crashed a knee into his face with all his might.

“GWAAA!”

With a cry, the boss lost control of his body and began falling in a straight line toward the ground. I squatted, my body folding like a frog’s as I channeled strength into my legs. At that moment, I only had one goal in mind.

The ground beneath me cracked as I launched myself in the air. In a flash, I was in front of the boss. I clenched my right fist tightly and punched him in his crooked face with all my strength.

Smack!!!

I pummeled his face continuously as he fell toward the ground like a balloon losing air. As soon as Kim Hyeong-Jun landed back on the ground, he positioned himself underneath, where he judged that the boss would land.

Just as the boss was about to touch the ground, Kim Hyeong-Jun, who had been rushing toward him like a raging wave, kicked him right on the temple, using all the force he had built up on his approach.

It was pretty much a one-sided assault. The boss couldn’t do anything; not even the guts he had could help him. Mood-Swinger and Ji-Eun had taken care of his stage-three mutants, and my other underlings had mercilessly swept aside the thousands of underlings that he had.

As soon as I landed, I ran to Kim Hyeong-Jun. He was looking down at the dying boss. I looked down at him, taking in his crumpled face.

“Any last words you want to say?” I asked.

“...”

The boss glared at us with eyes full of resentment, not saying a word. I crouched down in front of him.

"Hmm, it seems like you can’t even talk with that twisted jaw of yours, huh?” I asked again.

“He…lp… me…”

The boss finally opened his mouth and pleaded for help. He spoke extremely slowly, in a tone full of despair. Kim Hyeong-Jun stood over him, his fists shaking.

“This bastard thinks he can blurt anything out of his damn mouth…”

I cut off Kim Hyeong-Jun and glared at the boss. "Hey, that’s enough man.”

With a sigh, I said, “You shouldn’t have said that if you wanted to live.”

“...”

“You should’ve considered all the people you’ve killed. Don’t you feel any guilt whatsoever?”

“They’re… species… evolving… That’s all."

“So humans are just beings that haven’t evolved?”

His body began to give out a faint bit of steam. Even in the midst of all of this, his body was regenerating. I clenched my right hand and smacked him in the jaw.

Whack!!!

His jaw shattered to pieces, and steam stopped rising from his body. I looked him directly in the eyes.

‘Everyone you’ve killed is waiting for you to go to hell.\'

He finally realized how helpless he was, and his eyes began to tremble in fear. I stared down at him, with bitterness, anger, and a million other feelings on my face.

‘You’re going to have to go through what they’ve gone through.’

When I had said all that I wanted to say, I got up. I looked over at Kim Hyeong-Jun, who was glaring at the boss with the same, unmoving expression. I asked him for a favor.

“Could you take care of him?”

“Happily.”

I got up and walked over to where my underlings were.

Thud, thud, thud!

I heard Kim Hyeong-Jun stomping on the boss’s head a couple of times behind me. He crushed the boss’ head over and over, as though letting out all the stress he had accumulated. I turned back around.

“Hey, hey, don’t completely destroy his head. You’re going to damage his brain,” I said.

“Wait, ahjussi, did you want the brain?”

“No, but I think we should give it to Han-Sol.”

“Oh.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun stopped stamping on the boss’ head and retrieved the half-damaged brain.

Do Han-Sol had yet to eat a black creature’s brain, so the speed of his regenerative abilities was pretty slow. It would be good if he could ingest the boss’ brain and increase his rate of regeneration in the future. Since it was impossible to know what the state of things on Jeju Island was like, it was important to make sure that Do Han-Sol got stronger as well.

I stared blankly into the blue sky and let out a deep breath.

I thought I’d feel comfortable and at peace after taking care of the head of the Family. I thought I’d feel relieved that everything was over. However, I still felt uneasy and uncomfortable, and there was an unexplainable tension within me.

I felt like I had gained nothing from his death; he didn’t feel the slightest remorse for what he had done. His death was futile and pointless. Even though I’d killed him, I still felt as though I wanted to kill him even more. I wanted to kill him over and over again until he broke down and offered a tearful apology. Perhaps only then would I feel better, knowing that he’d gotten what he deserved.

Kim Hyeong-Jun noticed my bitter expression and walked over to me.

“Maybe you should’ve finished him off, ahjussi.”

“Why?”

“Because you don’t look satisfied.”

I burst into laughter. I shook my head, and Kim Hyeong-Jun slapped me lightly on my forearm.

“We did it.”

“...”

“There aren’t any bastards left in Seoul.”

“Yeah.”

I nodded and offered him a small smile. Kim Hyeong-Jun smiled back.

“I’m going to check on Mood-Swinger. You should do the same with your underlings, ahjussi.”

"Okay, yeah. Go ahead.”

As I watched Kim Hyeong-Jun walking away, I took a deep breath and let it out. I exhaled forcefully, slowly dispelling the uneasiness within me.

He was right. Everything was over. We had to be happy with what we’d achieved.

I then recalled the thing I’d wanted the most ever since I’d woken up as a zombie. Above all, I desired for my daughter\'s safety.

I had to be content with the fact that my family was safe now. All we needed to do was to get to Jeju Island and build our own Garden of Eden.

I sighed and walked over to where Ji-Eun and the stage-one mutants were. Three stage-one mutants had died fighting the boss’s underlings. I offered thanks for the mutants that died fighting. I then ordered all the surviving mutants to feast on the zombie corpses around them.

Ji-Eun had been injured in her fight against the stage-three mutant, so I fed her the brain of the dong leader we’d encountered at the southern end of Sogang Bridge. I gave the other dong leader’s brain to Mood-Swinger.

Just as I had wrapped things up and was about to leave for Gimpo Airport, Kim Hyeong-Jun slapped me on the arm. The sudden slap caught me off-guard.

“What was that?” I asked him, rubbing my forearm. “Why did you hit me all of a sudden?”

“Ahjussi, what’s that?”

Kim Hyeong-Jun was pointing at something with a flustered expression. I looked calmly in the direction he was pointing, but quickly rubbed my eyes, as I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

There was something floating in the blue sky, like a fly floating in a glass of milk. Something was in the air that shouldn’t have been there in that day and age.

A plane was descending toward Gimpo Airport.