Walking Daddy

Do Han-Sol looked out at the darkened world.

“What shall we do?” he asked Kim Hyeong-Jun.

“Let\'s wait until Hyun-Deok ahjussi comes back. Didn’t he tell you to wait with the planes?”

“That’s probably the best thing to do, right?”

“You take charge of the defenses around here. And make sure you fill up your number of underlings.”

“I’ll take my time to replenish my missing underlings. My body won’t be able to take it if I suddenly amass a large number of underlings. Oh. By the way, Mr. Kim Hyeong-Jun, where are you going to go?”

Kim Hyeong-Jun looked around, and then pointed to the roof of the passenger terminal.

“I’ll look around the area from above and come back. I\'ll leave one of my stage-one mutants here, so if anything happens, give it a shove, alright?”

“Got it. I’ll see you soon.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun nodded and headed straight to the terminal. After sealing the entrance with dead zombie bodies, he jumped up to the roof and took a look around. He saw half-broken palm trees, dented airport buses, collapsed buildings, and a damaged signboard that explained the local way of saying hello. Jeju Island was in a state of devastation.

After the tourists stopped coming and the existing civilization was destroyed, Jeju Island had become a hell on earth.

Kim Hyeong-Jun squinted and surveyed the surrounding terrain.

‘Since that is north… The west is to my right, while the east is left?’

You could generally divide Jeju Island into the North and South, which were Jeju-si and Seogwipo-si. More than seventy percent of Jeju Island’s population lived in urban areas. In order to leave Jeju Airport and find a less-habited area, passing through a city was inevitable.

In other words, the Survivor Rally Organization was stuck in Jeju Airport until they finished cleaning up Jeju-si, since the airport was located close to Jeju-si.

With a flash of his blue eyes, Kim Hyeong-Jun heightened his body’s senses. He was about to examine the area with his heightened sense of hearing and vision, when he noticed a red dot moving to the right. He quickly hid himself behind a railing and tracked down the red dot with his eyes. He saw five red dots walking toward the airport.

\'Enemies?’

Lee Hyun-Deok had scolded him earlier for being hasty with Kim Dae-Young. So this time, he decided to keep his eye on them before committing to a course of action. He then realized that there weren’t any other zombies around them. He decided that it would be wise to check if those red dots were zombies with red eyes, or if they were zombies that were following orders.

Kim Hyeong-Jun held his breath and waited patiently. Then, he heard them speaking.

“Hey, are you sure? A hundred percent?”

“Yes, I saw it. I’m not kidding. A plane came from that way.”

“No. I mean, did it actually land on Jeju Island?”

“The zombies probably gathered because it landed, you idiot.”

They were arguing as they approached Jeju Airport.

“Hey, if planes are able to fly, doesn’t that mean it’s safe on the mainland?”

"Safe? Hey, do you think we’re human? Do you think we can go to places where people live?”

“I don’t know, maybe there’s a vaccine.”

“Vaccine my ass. Do you think vaccines just come out from thin air or something?”

Their conversation had been rather ambiguous so far. There wasn’t enough to determine if they were zombies that fought for humans, or whether they were ones that hunted humans. Kim Hyeong-Jun chewed his nails as he continued to eavesdrop on them.

“By the way, did all the zombies from Jeju City gather here or something? There sure are a lot of them.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I bet everyone on the planes died when the zombies came to greet them.”

The red zombie in front turned around and addressed the guys muttering behind it.

"It doesn\'t matter if people died or not. Didn\'t you hear what your hyung-nim said? Focus on the mission, you puny ones.”

“As if you’re not puny yourself! I know, you fool! He ordered us to bring the ones that mutated into red-eyed zombies.”

“We need to find live humans and bring them back as well. Hyung-nim said that they also help us to keep our sanity.”

“Really?”

"They’re not as good as red-eyed zombies, but hyung-nim said that we’ll be able to hang onto our sanity even if we eat human brains.”

‘Hang onto their sanity? Are they talking about zombie instincts?’

However, Kim Hyeong-Jun quickly realized that it didn’t matter what they were talking about. A grin had spread across his face after overhearing their conversation.

‘So I can kill them all, huh?’

While he was still in the middle of his thoughts, the zombies had made it all the way to the first floor.

"Hmm? Shit… Some bastard painted the passenger terminal black.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Look at the windows. They’re all black.”

“You’re right. Does that stuff come off?”

One of them ran up to the windows. Kim Hyeong-Jun gritted his teeth and accelerated his blood flow. He was getting himself fully prepared so that he could pounce on them at any second. The fellow in front of the windows gave a startled exclamation, as though he’d fallen on his bottom.

“Zom… Zombies! It’s not painted. It\'s a pile of zombies!"

“What gibberish are you uttering…”

Whoosh–

Something cast a long shadow over them as it crossed the moonlight, originating from the roof of the terminal. All five of the zombies looked up at once as they noticed another presence, but none of them put up their guards.

Pow! Smack! Pow! Smack!

Before they even had the chance to observe Kim Hyeong-Jun, he had crushed their skulls and torn up their bodies like rags. The zombie sitting in front of the window froze, trying to make sense of what had just happened in front of its eyes.

Kim Hyeong-Jun had killed four zombies in an instant, and was closing in on the last one.

"Greetings."

“Spare… spare me.”

The remaining zombie instinctively asked to be spared. Kim Hyeong-Jun flashed him a grin.

“That depends on how you do.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun cut off the limbs of the last, trembling zombie, then took its body and the heads of the other four zombies and returned to the runway. Do Han-Sol, who was waiting on the runway, looked at what Kim Hyeong-Jun had brought with him, and his eyes went wide.

“What’s this all of a sudden?” he asked.

“They were snooping around the airport.”

“Really?”

“Give these four heads to Mr. Jeong Jin-Young. He can’t even become allies with us because he’s so weak. He needs to get stronger just so that we can shake hands.”

Unlike Kim Hyeong-Jun, who was feeling all elated, Do Han-Sol was looking at Kim Hyeong-Jun with his mouth open, as though he was seeing something ridiculous. Kim Hyeong-Jun chuckled, thinking that Do Han-Sol was doubting him.

“Why are you looking at me like that? You don’t believe me? I made sure of everything, man. These guys use humans for food. And it seems like they’re moving in groups. I heard them say ‘hyung-nim’ this, ‘hyung-nim’ that earlier.”

“And what’s about the one that’s still alive?”

“We have to interrogate this one, since we need to learn about this organization.”

"Then where are their underlings?”

"Huh?"

Kim Hyeong-Jun tilted his head and looked at Do Han-Sol. After a moment, he gave a start and his mouth fell open, as if he had just realized that he’d acted hastily again. Do Han-Sol sighed and placed his hand on his forehead.

“Didn’t you find out the location of their underlings?” he asked in a voice close to a sigh.

"Oh… I didn\'t think of that.”

“If their underlings are at their main base… And if they’re part of an organization… You’re basically announcing to them that we killed one of their men! How could you just attack them when we don’t even know how strong they are?!”

“...”

Do Han-Sol let out a deep sigh. “What are you going to do now?” he asked.

Kim Hyeong-Jun tossed the body of the living zombie—still missing its limbs—on the ground.

“Did you hear everything we just said?” he asked the zombie.

"Pardon? Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for. Where are your underlings? Did you leave them at your main base?”

“Yes…?”

“Where’s your main base?”

The remaining zombie looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun and Do Han-Sol with a puzzled expression, unsure how to answer the question that had come out of the blue. Several expressions flashed across Kim Hyeong-Jun’s face in quick succession, and he asked the zombie another question.

“Are there more of you?”

“Oh… Umm…”

When the zombie hesitated, Kim Hyeong-Jun pointed at the four heads and offered a threat.

“Okay,” said. “Your stuttering gave it away. Thanks. From now on, if you don\'t answer within five seconds, you’re going to join that pile of heads over there.”

He seemed about to eat the zombie at any second.

“Emart! Emart at Nohyeong Junction!” the zombie stuttered loudly.[1]

"Are you sure?"

“Yes, yes! I’m sure."

“Where do we have to go to get there?”

“Head south, along the main road. It’ll be right there.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun carried the red-eyed zombie’s torso and headed for the roof of the passenger terminal. He ordered the zombie to point to where Emart was. The red-eyed zombie, still missing his limbs, looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun incredulously.

Kim Hyeong-Jun belatedly realized that he’d chopped off the zombie’s limbs earlier. He let out a yell and flew into a sudden rage.

"If you don’t have arms, use your chin!”

“Ah, yes!”

The zombie eagerly repeated the phrase “over there”, gesturing in a particular direction with his chin.

“Are you absolutely sure about this?”

"Yes. Why would I lie to you when my life is on the line?”

“There we go.”

"Then… Are you going to spare me?”

“What? Me?"

Kim Hyeong-Jun tilted his head and furrowed his brow. The zombie’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell open in surprise. After a moment, he began to beg for his life again.

“You… You said you’d spare me earlier! You have to keep your word!”

“Okay, okay. Since I said I’d spare you, I guess I have no choice but to spare you.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun nodded and returned to the runway. Do Han-Sol looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun disapprovingly. He could tell that Kim Hyeong-Jun was trying to make up for his mistake somehow, but knowing this only made him more anxious.

Kim Hyeong-Jun threw the limbless zombie in front of Do Han-Sol. When Do Han-Sol raised a questioning eyebrow and tilted his head, Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his own head.

“Han-Sol, you kill this zombie.”

“Hey, man! You said you’d let me go!”

The zombie on the ground was shouting desperately at Kim Hyeong-Jun. He ignored their desperation.

“I let you live,” he said calmly. “Now ask him to let you live. Beg for your dear life.”

“You bastard!!” the zombie cursed in anger.

Crack!

Do Han-Sol stepped in front of Kim Hyeong-Jun and crushed the zombie’s skull, as though he did not want to hear the zombie cursing. He frowned at Kim Hyeong-Jun.

“What are you planning on doing?” he asked.

“I’m going to invade.”

“I don’t think you should do anything reckless. I can’t just let you go around creating havoc.”

“Then what shall we do? Should we go on the defense? I\'ve already killed all of them. Do you think we can protect the aircraft in this wide open area when we don’t even know how many of them there are? We don’t even know how large their organization is.”

“What I’m trying to say is, why did you do something this reckless in the first place? Did you really have to kill five of them?”

Kim Hyeong-Jun smacked his lips and avoided Do Han-Sol’s question. He had already admitted that he’d made a mistake. He just wanted to make up for what he had done somehow, before the situation got worse.

He sighed.

“Then what should I have done?” he asked Do Han-Sol. “There were five of them. Do you think it would’ve been possible to take down and keep five of them captive at the same time? I’m sure I would’ve missed one or two of them.”

“You could have lured them to the runway, and we could have taken them down together.”

“They had already noticed what was going on after seeing the pile of dead zombie bodies at the terminal entrance. They wouldn’t have even checked the runway.”

“Regardless, there’s no changing the fact that you acted out without a proper…”

Kim Hyeong-Jun cut him off abruptly.

"Please! Han-Sol!”

Do Han-Sol bit his lower lip, and his expression grew complicated. Kim Hyeong-Jun’s expression grew bitter.

“Don’t you trust me?” he asked Do Han-Sol.

“This isn\'t a matter of trusting you or not. I just…”

“They’re probably targeting Jeju Airport at this very moment while we waste our time arguing about this.”

“And that’s why you’re saying that you’re going to barge into their territory without having a plan?”

“All of this is their territory. They probably have a good understanding of the terrain around here. That being said, we should be attacking, not defending.”

Do Han-Sol thought about what Kim Hyeong-Jun had said. He sighed and slicked his bangs back, then clicked his tongue vigorously.

“What should we tell Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok when he comes back later…?” he said.

“We’ll tell him the truth. There’s nothing else we can do about what happened, or what’s going to happen.”

"Sigh… When I see you sometimes… You’re really smart sometimes, but sometimes you make me extremely frustrated, you know?”

“People aren’t supposed to be consistent, you know? That’s my charm.”

“Charm? You just go back and forth all the time.”

Do Han-Sol shook his head and let out a sigh. Kim Hyeong-Jun smiled.

“I’ll leave one of my stage-one mutants behind…”

“I know. Just be careful out there. I know you won’t even listen to me even if I tried to stop you.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun chuckled and gave Do Han-Sol a thumbs-up. Do Han-Sol sighed as if he couldn\'t stand Kim Hyeong-Jun, then went off to reorganize his underlings.

Do Han-Sol knew that Lee Hyun-Deok and Kim Hyeong-Jun both had a stubborn streak. However, their stubbornness had saved everyone so far, so he couldn’t say no to them. He did his best to assist them, so that their stubborn decisions would end up being the right ones.

Lee Hyun-Deok, Kim Hyeong-Jun, and Do Han-Sol.

The Survivor Rally Organization was in perfect balance because the three of them did their best in their given roles.

1. Emart, also known as E-Mart, is the largest retailer in South Korea. It is similar to an H-Mart or a Walmart. ☜