Walking Daddy

The Russian soldiers kept a close eye on the surroundings as the commander led them to Innovation City, navigating using the map they had. Tommy followed the commander, his expression still bitter. Alyosha, who had been walking beside him, poked him in the shoulder and.

“Tommy, look behind you.”

When he turned around, he saw a woman with a sad face following them. She was Lee Hyun-Deok’s underling, the mutant called Ji-Eun.

Alyosha looked at Ji-Eun blankly, then grinned at Tommy.

“Why is she following us?” he asked.

“Maybe Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok ordered her to protect us? No… He clearly ordered her to protect the survivors.”

“Maybe it’s because she’s more familiar with us than the people in the subway?”

He had a point. Lee Hyun-Deok had ordered Ji-Eun to protect the survivors. But when the Russian group decided to leave, she probably had to make a decision to either protect the people from Russia, or the survivors from Daegu. Since Ji-Eun had seen the people from Russia longer, it only made sense that she would feel a stronger sense of familiarity toward them.

Tommy looked over at Ji-Eun again.

‘That mutant… I wonder if she’s strong.’

The Russian group had no information about the mutants whatsoever.

The commander who was in the lead broke the silence.

"Ha! He sure did a good job cleaning up. I knew it. There\'s nothing dangerous here at all.”

As they entered Innovation City, they were greeted by dead zombie corpses. They moved forward, avoiding the dead zombies. Thanks to Lee Hyun-Deok, they were able to reach the Brain Research Institute easily, without any of them having to fire their weapons.

When they got to the plaza near the main entrance of the Brain Research Institute, however, the commander stopped in his tracks and pinched his nose.

There were thousands of corpses strewn about the ground. Tommy felt sick to his stomach at the unfathomable number of dead bodies. Unable to hold it in, he grabbed onto a utility pole and threw up. Alyosha rubbed him on the back, grimacing.

Even the ever-cheerful Russian researcher looked nervous, as he had realized how serious things were. The commander cleared his throat and gave an order to the soldiers.

“Fix bayonets.”

“Fix bayonets!” responded the soldiers in unison as they fixed their bayonets to their rifles.

“Keep an eye on the ground as we move,” the commander said with a frown. “If you happen to find one that’s alive, don\'t hesitate. Stab it.”

“Yes sir.”

The soldiers moved slowly, glancing down at the ground every now and then. There were so many zombie bodies that it made it difficult to distinguish where the road was. Every now and then, a soldier groaned as they stepped into a puddle of zombie guts.

Tommy and Alyosha frowned as they kept up with the soldiers. As they walked, Alyosha studied the dead zombie bodies carefully. After a moment, he looked over at Tommy.

“Tommy, don’t these ones look different?” he asked.

"Don’t speak to me. It’s already hard enough just trying to breathe.”

“Look at them closely. Their blood vessels are protruding out way too clearly.”

Alyosha pointed toward one severed zombie limb. Tommy squeezed his nose even harder with his right index finger and thumb and peered at the zombie leg. Just as Alyosha had said, the veins on the zombie limb were protruding excessively. Their veins were twisted about, like the veins of someone suffering from varicose veins.

All of the sudden, something bizarre started to happen. Even though this leg was clearly separated from the head and body… Blood was still flowing within it. The veins were still moving.

Tommy focused on the zombie\'s leg like a child watching ants. Alyosha, who was next to him, asked with a smirk on his face, “Should we try touching it?”

“Should… should we?” repeated Tommy, an uncertain smile playing across his lips.

Alyosha touched the zombie\'s leg with his toes.

Like a salmon jumping out of the water, the zombie\'s leg began to jump up and down. Tommy and Alyosha freaked out and took a couple steps backwards, eventually landing on their bottoms. That one zombie leg seemed to trigger a chain reaction, and all the zombie corpses across the plaza began to jump up and down.

Tommy was so confused that he couldn\'t even move. His mouth fell open and his eyes widened as he took in what was happening in front of him. Alyosha’s reaction was no different.

"What are you doing?!" yelled the commander from behind them.

He then grabbed the two of them by their collars and dragged them into the brain research institute, then slammed them against the wall.

“Don\'t touch anything without my orders! You understand?” he yelled.

Tommy and Alyosha nodded, still in shock. The commander clicked his tongue vigorously and turned to his soldiers.

“There are zombies remaining within the lab. Nobody let their guard down,” he ordered.

“Yes sir!”

The commander and soldiers continued down the hallway of Building A. Tommy stared at the commander blankly as he walked away, but for some reason, he couldn’t move. He was so shocked that he had lost the strength to move. Alyosha, who was next to him, swallowed.

“Tommy, just now… Have you ever seen anything like that?” he asked.

“No.”

"Their limbs were jumping up and down like fish.”

“We shouldn’t have come.”

"Then what should we do? Should we just stay here?”

“I think it’d be best to wait until Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok returns.”

While the two were lost in their own conversation, the commander, who was in front of the group, looked back.

“Why aren’t you following us?” he shouted. “Do you want to die there?”

Tommy wet his parched lips.

“We’ll… We’ll stay here,” he said.

"What’s that?"

“Could you come back for us after you finish cleaning up the zombies?”

“You’re kidding me, aren’t you?”

“We… We have the vaccine! Your role is to protect us, isn’t it? It makes no sense for us to go with you right now!”

Tommy’s lips trembled as he replied, as if he didn’t want to be told what to do anymore. The commander snorted.

"Ha! All right. We don\'t want our precious researchers to die.”

“...”

“Get some rest with that zombie next to you.”

When Tommy and Alyosha heard that there was a zombie next to them, their heads snapped around so quickly that audible pops were heard. Ji-Eun was sitting right next to Alyosha.

The two gasped and fell to the floor, all frightened and scared. Even though they knew she was an ally, she was still a zombie to them. Being this close to a zombie… They couldn’t help but feel creeped out.

As the Russian soldiers got further away, Tommy gulped and looked at Ji-Eun blankly. She was looking back at them with a neutral expression. Tommy cleared his throat lightly.

"Umm… Excuse me… Can you speak as well?” he asked Ji-Eun.

“...”

“Hmm, I guess she can’t speak.”

“Child…”

“Pardon?”

“My child…” Ji-Eun croaked in a dry voice. Her low, grim voice sent chills down his spine.

“Tommy, it seems like you’re able to communicate with this zombie? No?” asked Alyosha.

“What do you mean?”

"Didn\'t you two just speak to each other?"

“She said ‘my child, my child’ to me! Nothing else!”

“Oh, shit.”

Alyosha distanced himself from Ji-Eun and put his face in his hands.

Thud, thud, thud.

They heard a sudden knocking noise. It sounded like something was hitting a thin iron plate. Tommy looked around.

“Alyosha, do you hear that too?” he asked.

“I do. Perhaps it’s the soldiers breaking down a door?”

“Well if that’s the case, it should be louder. Where’s this noise coming from?”

“Let’s go check it out.”

As Alyosha tried to get up, Tommy’s eyes went wide and he tried to yank him back down. He stared at the Russian, his eyes reflecting his own surprise.

"Are you nuts? Where do you think you’re going?”

"It’s coming from somewhere nearby. We should check it out, just in case there are zombies that are still alive.”

“No, no, no! Don’t go! I’m scared. And what if it’s actually a zombie?”

In addition to his heightened emotional state, there was another reason why Tommy was acting like this.

Tommy was quite the coward. He got frightened very easily. Since he was easily scared, it was easy to think that he would be extremely cautious at all times, but it also meant that he was easily persuaded by others as well.

Whether it was following Lee Hyun-Deok’s instructions and waiting at Ansim Station, or following the commander to the Brain Research Institute, nothing he did was of his own will. Alyosha saw Tommy fidgeting, and scratched his head.

“Let’s just go and check it out,” he said. “We don’t even have to get close.”

“It must’ve been the sound of the wind. You hear the same kind of sound when wind hits a glass window, you know?”

“Well if that’s the case, lucky us. But we still have to check it out.”

Tommy shook his head violently and begged him to stay.

“No, no, no, no. You know the ones that are the most curious in the movies? They’re the ones who die first! Just stay here, please.”

Despite that, Alyosha got up and offered an unnecessarily benevolent smile. Even though Tommy anxiously called out to Alyosha, he didn\'t look back once as he headed toward where the sound was coming from. Tommy scratched his head furiously, a swirl of emotions on his face, then cursed in Korean and got to his feet.

Alyosha headed to the cleaning supply closet located in the corner of the lobby of Building A. It sounded like someone was banging on the closet doors from the inside. Tommy saw his gaze fall on the closet, and hurriedly grabbed his arm.

“I’m telling you, it’s a zombie! I’m a hundred percent sure that it’s a zombie. I don’t even think it’s necessary to open the door to figure this out. It’s a zombie, I can tell. They locked a zombie inside the closet. What else would they lock up? Right?”

“Hmmm…”

Cold sweat trickled down Tommy\'s forehead. His nervousness was increasing, causing his breathing to grow irregular. Alyosha seemed to agree with Tommy. He nodded and took several cautious steps backward.

Bang-!

At that moment, the sound of gunshots echoed through Building A.

Tommy and Alyosha crouched down reflexively and looked around.

Bang, bang, bang!

The gunfire intensified. It seemed like the Russian soldiers had encountered some zombies. The two of them covered their ears with their hands and closed their eyes as the gunfire continued.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

At the same time, the being trapped in the cleaning supply closet started banging on the door even more forcefully. Tommy’s eyes went wide and he hurried back to the entrance of Building A. Alyosha, on the other hand, ran to the cleaning supply closet and held the door closed with his hands, and then his upper body.

Ini that brief moment, the two of them had made different decisions.

Tommy stopped in his tracks and called out to Alyosha.

“Alyosha! Just leave!”

“If this opens, we won’t be able to make it! Zombies are faster than us!”

“It’s okay, just come!”

It was getting harder for Alyosha to hold the door closed. The banging inside was only getting stronger and stronger. The hinges twisted, and Alyosha started to stumble. Tommy frowned and ran over to Alyosha.

Thud!!

GRRR!!

Before Tommy could get to Alyosha, the zombie trapped inside the closet had made its way out. The door went down, along with Alyosha.

Tommy looked the zombie right in the eye. The brief moment felt like an eternity to him. The two of them were only two meters apart.

Tommy could only think of one thing.

‘I’m fucked.’

His heart felt like it had stopped beating, like his blood had stopped flowing throughout his entire body. Just like the zombies out in the square, the zombie that had emerged from the closet had bloated blood vessels.

Tommy quickly turned around and ran toward the front door without looking back even once. He could tell that the zombie was chasing him down with all its might. Chills went down his spine as he ran as if there was no tomorrow.

However, the zombie had caught up, and shoved him down by his neck. As he fell to the floor, he quickly turned his body around. He was out of luck. The mad zombie was right in front of his face.

“AHHH!!”

He instinctively screamed at the top of his lungs. The moment its teeth went for Tommy\'s face, a long object slashed its head off. However, the zombie didn’t stop moving even after its head was sliced off.

Ji-Eun frowned and started slashing at the zombie with her elongated fingers. Tommy stared blankly at the ceiling, like someone who had just seen a ghost. He was slowly losing his consciousness; he could barely hear the gunshot noises anymore. The fear and shock got the better of him and he fainted on the spot.

“To… Tommy…!”

Alyosha, who had been squished underneath the door made his way out, holding onto his throbbing head. For some reason, his chest was wet. Alyosha reflexively tried to wipe away the liquid on his clothes with his palm, only to find his hand smeared with blue liquid.

When he saw his palm, his mouth fell open, and his eyes flew wide with shock. There was no need to explain what had happened. Anyone could have known it just by looking at his face.

The vial of vaccine he’d been carrying had broken.