Walking Daddy

I quickly accelerated my blood flow to get them out. By concentrating on my enhanced hearing, I detected the sounds of some people breathing from the closets to the left and right. Even though I had the mind of a human, I still had a zombie body. I couldn’t help but feel tempted by the sound of their breathing.

“Help… help me.”

One of the four men who were tied up was pleading for help. My eyes flashed, and I crouched down in front of them. The men belatedly swallowed in fear when they saw my eyes. They seemed taken aback by the fact that there was a zombie in front of them.

I remained still, but their fear still made them try their best to squirm away from here. I stared at them struggling for a little bit, then headed for the closets on the left. The people hiding in the closet on the left seemed nervous, given their heavy breathing.

I opened all four closets, and was confronted by four men with pistols. Their hands were trembling as they looked at me. However, it seemed like they weren’t trembling just out of fear. Their eyes seemed to say that they wanted to live and get out of this place. I carefully lowered my gaze, and saw that their ankles were tied together with thin wires.

I couldn’t figure out why they hadn’t shot me, given that they had pistols in their hands. However, it didn’t take me long to find the answer.

The reason they didn’t pull the trigger on me was because they didn’t have any ammunition.

\'Huh… Out of all the reasons…’

Still unable to grasp the absurdity of the situation, I turned around and looked at the men tied up with rope. When I took a closer look at them, I noticed that none of them had any wounds or scars on their bodies. Something didn’t feel right. I remembered that this was supposed to be a torture chamber, and that should’ve meant that the people being detained here should have marks on them showing that they’d been beaten.

However, none of the tied-up men had any scars on their bodies, while the four men in the closets had bruises all over their faces.

I couldn’t believe that they’d thought I would fall for this kind of joke. Given how urgent the situation was, they could’ve ended up with an ordinary rescue team. But I was far from that. I had no reason to be nervous or feel a sense of urgency. I had all the freedom of an apex predator.

I looked at the men in the closet again. Tears were rolling down their faces. They continued to cry silently. I couldn’t even fathom how frightened they were. They were probably even more frightened than usual because they couldn’t figure out if I was on their side or not.

I tried to communicate with them through my eyes. When I gestured with my chin toward the men tied up with rope, one of the men in the closets nodded back as if he understood me. At that moment, I remembered what Kim Hyeong-Jun had told me.

- We still have to find four more survivors, and since we just killed three soldiers, there are still six left.

Since there were four survivors in the left row of closets, that meant that there were more soldiers in the closets on the right that I had yet to open. The four soldiers tied up with rope had no weapons on them, since they were trying to act as the survivors.

‘This means that the soldiers with weapons are… on the right.’

I clenched my fists and, without hesitation, hurled my fists at the four closets on the right.

Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!

To someone who could easily break reinforced concrete, these closet doors felt like sponges. Red blood started to ooze out of the smashed-up closets. Only then did the four soldiers kneeling on the floor realize the seriousness of the situation, and they looked up at the same time.

I looked back at them.

“You should’ve done a better job.”

“You… You motherfucker!”

They easily untied themselves and charged at me. It seemed they had tied themselves loosely just in case. At least this part of their plan wasn’t clumsy. However, coming after me was the same as banging their heads against a brick wall. Their endeavor meant absolutely nothing to me.

I crushed the four soldiers in the blink of an eye, and the survivors in the left closets collapsed to the ground and started crying. I wiped away the sticky blood from my hands.

“I’m from the Survivor Rally Organization. You’re in safe hands,” I said to them.

“Thank you, thank you…”

When I checked their pistols, just as I had expected, none of them had bullets. On the other hand, when I opened the dented closet doors on the right, I saw two dead soldiers helplessly clutching their K2 rifles. Just by their appearance, I could tell what they were about to do once I’d opened the doors. However, it seemed like they hadn’t expected me to smash the closets even before opening them.

I slicked my hair back and sighed. I removed the wire that tied the survivors together and escorted all four of them out of the fueling station. As he saw me come out, Kim Hyeong-Jun, who had been waiting outside, started walking toward me with Shin Soo-Jeong in tow.

She belatedly saw the men I had escorted out with me, and her eyes widened. She ran toward them, looking as though she might burst into tears at any second. The four men and Shin Soo-Jeong hugged each other and wailed, overcome by the fact they had made it out alive.

As he looked at the five people crying at the top of their lungs, Kim Hyeong-Jun smirked and spoke up.

“And this is why we save people. Right, ahjussi?”

I smiled faintly and nodded. Park Gi-Cheol and the airline staff approached us and said that they would get down to work. Instead of following them, Yoon Jeong-Ho stopped in his tracks with a look of surprise when he saw the four men from the fueling station.

“Hyung-nim!”

“Are you Jeong-Ho? It’s Jeong-Ho!”

Yoon Jeong-Ho and the four men who had just come out from the fueling station exchanged warm embraces while calling each other by their names. It seemed like they had known each other from before. They had probably been separated when the zombies invaded the city. They clearly hadn’t expected to see each other in a place like this.

While Park Gi-Cheol and the airline staff carried on with what they had come to do, Kim Hyeong-Jun and I continued to converse with the survivors from the fueling station.

* * *

After we accomplished our task, we returned to Daegu Airport, where I saw dead zombie bodies piled up in front of the airport entrance. I hurried into the passenger terminal.

The survivors were all gathered together, and Do Han-Sol was wiping off blood from his face. I rushed over to him.

"What\'s the matter? What’s up with the zombies outside?” I asked him.

“Oh, you’re here.”

Do Han-Sol wiped off the remaining blood on his face, then continued to speak.

“There was a zombie attack.”

"When?"

“About thirty minutes ago. A handful of zombies came over Ayang Bridge.”

“Did anyone get injured? Is everyone okay?”

“Yes, there weren’t that many of them, and there weren’t any that were threatening. It seems like there aren’t any mutants in Daegu yet.”

I let out a sigh of relief and put my right hand on my forehead. I was thankful for Do Han-Sol’s presence. Judging by the amount of dead bodies piled up outside, it seemed like at least five hundred zombies had attacked. The fact that zombies had come meant that they had started to pick up the scent of humans, which ultimately meant that Daegu Airport was no longer safe.

I looked around, trying to find Lee Jeong-Uk. Do Han-Sol figured out who I was trying to locate.

“Mr. Lee Jeong-Uk is at the rear entrance of the terminal,” he said.

“Did you take care of the zombies on that side as well?”

“Yes. He said he’d be back after scouting that side of the airport.”

I nodded and headed for the back entrance after thanking him for what he had done. When I reached the rear entrance, I saw Lee Jeong-Uk and the guards coming back with firewood.

Lee Jeong-Uk saw me and smiled brightly.

“Is anyone hurt?” he asked.

“That’s something I was going to ask. Are you okay?”

“You know me, I’m fine. And with Do Han-Sol here, what could pose a danger?”

Lee Jeong-Uk smiled lightly and said that we should take the conversation inside. It seemed like he and the others had brought firewood for the survivors, who were shivering in the cold. After they distributed the firewood to the survivors, I looked at Lee Jeong-Uk.

“Gather the leaders so that we can have a meeting.”

“Okay.”

Lee Jeong-Uk left to find the other leaders while massaging his stiff back. Then Kim Hyeong-Jun stashed his hands in his pockets and asked me a favor.

“Ahjussi, can you let me skip this meeting?”

“Why?”

“We need someone to be on guard. I think the zombies know that we’re here.”

He was right. If the zombies had come across Ayang Bridge, it meant that they were picking up the scent of humans from afar. I thanked Kim Hyeong-Jun for stepping up and went ahead to the meeting room. Soon, all the leaders entered, along with Lee Jeong-Uk. The waiting room at the passenger terminal had somehow become our meeting room.

“I’ll give you all a quick briefing about what’s going on, and we\'ll get going.”

“Is the situation bad?” asked the principal, his face full of worry and doubt.

It seemed like my anxiousness was showing on my face. I gave the principal a quick nod and told the leaders everything I’d seen at Innovation City. When I told them of the existence of the new breed of zombies and the reason why Daegu got occupied, their faces hardened.

After a while, Lee Jeong-Uk spoke up.

“So all the Russian soldiers are dead?”

“Yes, everyone’s dead except Tommy and Alyosha.”

The leaders’ faces fell when they heard the unfortunate news of the Russian soldiers. They remained silent for a while, before Hwang Ji-Hye finally broke it.

“Then, with the vaccine gone, what are we going to do now?”

“It would be best to go ahead with our plan and move to Jeju Island. After I make sure Jeju Island is safe, I’m planning to go to the Russian laboratory with Tommy and Alyosha.”

"Pardon? You’re going to go to Russia?” Hwang Ji-Hye repeated, her eyes wide open.

I offered her a sad smile in return.

“There’s a limit to how long me, Hyeong-Jun, and Han-Sol can stay around. When our zombie instincts emerge, we’ll eventually pose a harm to everyone here.”

My reply to her was met with silence. It seemed like everyone had a lot on their mind, but they had decided to stay quiet since none of them could think of an alternative. Lee Jeong-Uk rubbed the back of his neck and smacked his lips in discomfort.

“We all knew this was going to happen someday. I said all of this at Gimpo Airport, so everyone, please, there’s no need to look so gloomy.”

“Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok…”

Hwang Ji-Hye couldn’t finish her sentence. She could only bite her lips and keep her head down. I looked around at the leaders.

“I know better than anyone how hard all of you have worked until now,” I said. “Please stay with me until the end.”

The leaders furrowed their brows with their lips tightly closed. They seemed overwhelmed, feeling sad, bitter, and regretful about what was going to happen in the future. After a moment, Lee Jeong-Uk spoke up, his voice tinged with annoyance.

“What’s up with this? Did someone die or something? Don’t put on sad faces, everyone.”

Lee Jeong-Hyuk, who was next to him, spoke up as well.

"He’s right. If they succeed in developing the vaccine in the Russian laboratory… Lee Hyun-Deok, Kim Hyeong-Jun, and Do Han-Sol will be able to return to their original selves.”

This brightened the leaders’ spirits a little.

The Survivor Rally Organization had been betting on the word ‘possibility’ up until now. No matter how slim or insignificant the chances were, we as an organization would make it possible this time as well, just as we had done so far.

I was sure that I’d be back after developing the vaccine. And at that time, I’ll be standing in front of So-Yeon as a human being, not as a zombie. I took in a deep breath and addressed the leaders again.

“When the planes are fueled up, we’ll leave for Jeju Island. Please get everything organized.”

“Are we going to stop by Gimhae as we originally planned?”

“Yes, let’s do that,” I answered with a nod.

Bae Jeong-Man, who was in a corner, raised his hand. All eyes fell on Bae Jeong-Man at once. He then took a deep breath and spoke up.

“If we use the military transport plane, we don\'t have to stop by Gimhae Airport. There’s no need to make things more cumbersome than they are.”

"What do you mean?" Lee Jeong-Uk asked.

Bae Jeong-Man quietly rubbed his chin. “Unlike commercial planes, military transport planes can take off and land even if the runway surface isn’t perfect, since they have to operate in any sort of condition during wartime.”

“You mean we can land even if there are zombies on the runway?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about this until now?”

“The military transport plane belonged to the Russian army, so it wasn’t something that I could just suggest.”

I leaned back in my chair as I listened to Bae Jeong-Man. If we had just dropped off the Russian troops in Daegu and headed to Jeju Island by ourselves... There was no way that they would’ve handed over their plane, since it was their most prized possession, and they valued it perhaps as much as their own lives. Because of this, if we had tried to take it by force, there would’ve been bloodshed.

It seemed like Bae Jeong-Man hadn’t brought up any military transport-related matters to prevent any of that from happening.