Walking Daddy

It was clear to me that they weren’t ‘dogs’. Unlike them, they weren’t humans that saw others as prey, but people who were willing to sacrifice themselves to protect their family and friends. If I was this certain, there was no reason for me to hesitate any further. I couldn’t let another situation like Mr. Kwak’s happen again. I got up and went back to my seat.

Lee Jeong-Uk took a look at my belly.

“You good?”

I didn’t think much of it and just covered the bloody part with my hand. I knew I would recover rather quickly from an injury like this.

I wrote down some words as soon as I sat down.

- Tell them about this place. Nicely, though.

Lee Jeong-Uk looked annoyed, but he didn’t disagree with me. He just sighed multiple times and then got up. As he stood, Lee Jeong-Hyuk stood as well. The Lee brothers went up to the survivors, and Lee Jeong-Uk spoke to the still-trembling survivors.

“Hey young bloods, act like gentlemen.”

“Huh?”

“Who in the world starts stabbing others before even trying to talk? Who did you learn your manners from?”

“My apologies.”

Even as the man apologized, he looked dumbfounded. He couldn’t comprehend the current situation, even though he was the one who had stabbed me. The Swiss army knife had been incredibly useless to him.

Lee Jeong-Uk scratched his head and then said,

“Follow me, I’ll show you your rooms.”

“We’re, we’re going to leave.”

This was the only woman from the group.

Lee Jeong-Uk snorted.

“You’re going outside? What for? To pee your pants again after seeing zombies?”

“Who, who are you accusing of peeing in their pants?!”

Lee Jeong-Uk pointed to the man who was on the floor in reply to the woman’s indignant question. The boldest-looking man in the group had peed his pants. I wondered what had passed through his mind when he’d seen my glowing red eyes right in front of him. The woman didn’t know what to say after seeing the yellow liquid. She didn’t know where to look. Her eyes were quivering violently.

Lee Jeong-Uk smacked his lips, apparently tired from the pointless conversation.

“Just follow me.”

The survivors helped the man on the floor to his feet, then followed the Lee brothers out.

I sighed deeply and wrote out a long message.

- In consideration of everyone’s opinion, we will not be accepting any more survivors in the meantime. Regarding today’s survivors, we’ll decide what to do with them depending on how they act for the next couple of days.

Everyone seemed to be in agreement. I slowly closed my eyes and let out a sigh. After a moment, I opened my eyes again and jotted down several more words.

- That’ll be the end of today’s meeting.

* * *

After the meeting, I went outside, feeling the cool breeze on my cheeks. I could tell that the weather was getting colder. I knew I had to prepare some warmer clothes for everyone. I walked around the complex as I massaged my stiff neck.

There was a lot to think about. I was worried about how we would get through the winter. I wasn’t sure if we could hold it off like we were doing right now. I was also worried that there might be food shortage issues. I couldn’t help but sigh as I considered the uncertain future ahead of us.

As I kept on walking, a boy and girl standing at the door beside the barricade caught my sight.

It was Woo Ga-In and Byeon Hyeok-Jin.

On the first day that I’d returned to the high school after taking care of the black creature, Woo Ga-In had been crying because the teachers hadn’t come back. Byeon Hyeok-Jin, who had been sitting across from her, had told the sobbing Woo Ga-In to stop crying. Now, the two of them… there seemed to be something going on between them while the adults were away.

While we adults were discussing matters concerning life and death, the adolescents were taking advantage of the time to form relationships. Byeon Hyeok-Jin laughed like a goofball, and Woo Ga-In beamed at him.

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. The whole situation seemed surprising, bordering on ridiculous. I was amazed at how they could even start a relationship in this kind of situation. It was truly nice to be young.

Byeon Hyeok-Jin turned around as he heard me giggle and looked at me as if he had done something wrong.

“Ah, ahjussi!”

His voice was a little too loud, as though he knew that he should be embarrassed.

I shook my head gently and took out my notepad.

- You like her, don’t you?

“Yeah…”

Byeon Hyeok-Jin’s face reddened quickly and he started scratching his head. Woo Ga-In looked down and played with her fingers. They were teenagers who should be living life to the fullest, and just wanted to have some fun. I was in no position to say anything to them.

I mussed up Byeon Hyeok-Jin’s hair with a gentle expression. Byeon Hyeok-Jin seemed slightly embarrassed by my gesture, but went back to Woo Ga-In with a smile on his face. The two held hands and went back to apartment 104. As I watched them heading away, I remembered my wife’s face.

Ever since the world had turned into this, I hadn’t heard a single thing about my wife. The last time I’d seen her was when she’d left for work in Jamsil, just like any other day. I wondered if she was still alive. I sighed a deep, sad sigh and stashed my hands in my pockets.

It was impossible to get to Gangnam right now. Apparently, the Hangang Bridge was blocked. At least that’s what Kim Hyeong-Jun had said. Since the information was from him, it was more than reliable. I knew he wasn’t the type of person to lie, although he’d hidden the fact that he knew that we could talk if we ate human brains.

Moreover, on the map that I’d obtained from the gang member, Gangnam remained unmarked. Jasmil now seemed like such a faraway place. Under normal circumstances, it was just a short trip away on Line 2. The Han River, which was a miracle for Korea, now seemed nothing more than an obstacle.[1]

I shook my head and let go of all the useless thoughts I had. It wasn’t the time to get sentimental. I needed to do what I could do, what I needed to do.

* * *

Two days had passed since the four survivors joined us. Kim Hyeong-Jun was still lying motionless in the security office of apartment 101, and showed no signs of getting up. I wondered if he was going to sleep for a week the way I had after eating the black creature’s brain.

Kim Hyeong-Jun was rather different from the zombie I’d been back then. At that time, I’d been one of the weakest zombies, but Kim Hyeong-Jun, in his present state, was considered one of the stronger ones. I wondered if the hibernation period was still a week, despite the differences. Perhaps the duration was the same, regardless of strength.

I had no information about this. I had to wait until Kim Hyeong-Jun woke up. Only then could I be certain.

As I sat on a wooden bench, lost in thought, I heard Lee Jeong-Uk’s voice.

“So-Yeon’s dad, they finally opened up.”

For some reason, I looked down unconsciously to check my fly.

Lee Jeong-Uk roared out a laugh.

“No, I mean the survivors. What are you looking at?”

I scratched my sideburns in embarrassment and then gestured to him to sit down next to me.

Lee Jeong-Uk sat down and continued,

“It seems like there’s a gym right beneath Dae Hyun San Park, in Haengdang 2-dong.”

I grew interested, and Lee Jeong-Uk peered into my face.

“Judging by your face, it seems like you’ve heard of Dae Hyun San Park. So, there are survivors there.”

I took out my notepad to ask him questions.

- How many are there?

“Eight men and women in their twenties. Including the four here, that makes twelve of them. They’re all college kids. Psychology majors. You get the point, right?”

- They’re part of the psychology major student association or something?

“Yeah. They got together for summer break and were coming up with plans for the upcoming semester. But, as you know, the world wasn’t on their side, so they basically found themselves trapped there.”

- Chances of them being in touch with the dogs?

“Little to none. They’ve never left Haengdang 2-dong.”

I rubbed my chin and fell into deep thought. I couldn’t rule out the possibility that they were lying. Even if they weren’t dogs, I wanted to know how they’d made it this far, and how they’d survived to this point.

If there were twelve of them, there would have been some food shortage issues. And the fact that they were staying in a gym, made me more suspicious about what they’d been doing up to this point. If they had got together to make plans for the upcoming semester, they could have met up at someone’s place, or other places like a cafe, restaurant, or even a study cafe where they could talk.

However, among all the options they had, they had chosen to meet at a gym.

It was possible that they had been hiding in Dae Hyun San Park gym to avoid the zombies, since it was rather out of the way, but if food became a consideration, they should have moved.

I say this because I’ve seen the gym underneath Dae Hyun San Park. I used to jog over to Dae Hyun San Park when I had been human whenever I felt like I needed to exercise. I often asked myself who in the world would use the gym there, as there was absolutely nothing around it.

There were no supermarkets around the area from which to get food. I remembered that I had to look around to find a convenience store to quench my thirst after jogging, and even that had been difficult. Even when I finally found one, it seemed more like a small storage space, rather than an actual convenience store.

If it had only been a couple of days since the world had been turned upside down, I would have been convinced by their story. But it had been months.

The entire summer had passed, and fall was approaching. I couldn’t trust what they were saying. Enough time had passed for the season to change, and I wasn’t convinced that they could stay in the gym for that long.

It was close to impossible for them to have been able to stay there for so long, unless they had a zombie with glowing red eyes like me getting food for them. However, the idea of them having any connections to a zombie with glowing red eyes was close to zero.

I remembered the young man who had been full of bluster.

At first, he’d seemed bold, but as soon as I walked toward him, he started crying and had fallen on his bottom. He even peed his pants, so it was fair enough to say that he had no information about zombies with glowing red eyes.

There were only two possibilities: they had been risking their lives to get food, or they were lying to us.

I knew there was only one way to end this issue of mistrust. I had to see things with my own two eyes.

I took out my notepad and wrote down a few words.

- I’m going on patrol.

“I’ll go as well.”

I arched my eyebrows, and Lee Jeong-Uk continued in a calm voice,

“I let those survivors into this shelter. Whether you like it or not, I want to be responsible for them.”

- We might meet a black creature.

“Is there anyone else that can stay sane if they encounter a black creature? Well, the last time I didn’t do much, but I did at least experience it once.”

I smirked and let out a laugh. As if embarrassed, Lee Jeong-Uk looked at my notepad and changed the topic.

“Well, So-Yeon’s dad, aside from that…”

“Grr?”

“I think your handwriting is getting better! Can you write full sentences now? Is it because you’ve been eating enemy brains?”

I took a look at what I’d written after hearing his compliment. I could now write sentences. Just a while back, I’d only been able to write down individual words.

I wondered when I had started writing this fluently. My writing skills had gotten a lot better without me even noticing. I didn’t know the exact reason why it had gotten better. It might’ve been because I’d eaten enemy brains, or perhaps I had just gotten used to being a zombie.

As I shrugged, Lee Jeong-Uk chuckled.

“Since the sun’s already setting today, how about we go tomorrow at sunrise? Deal?”

“Grr.” I made a gurgling sound and nodded. I hadn’t heard Lee Jeong-Uk say the word ‘deal’ in a while. It hit me differently, evoking a sense of friendship for some reason.

Perhaps we were more than friends now. We might have become something much closer than that. We weren’t in this together in order to achieve a common goal, or achieve our individual goals.

In the beginning, we had both come together because of the fact that we were both survivors, but we were no longer held together because of such a simple reason. Surviving in this world had become only a small part of why we remained together. Now, we were looking after each other’s safety and happiness, and were creating something beyond an ordinary community.

We’d gone through moments of life and death, thick and thin, built a place to live together, and shared happy moments together.

We were family.

1. Jamsil Station is a subway station along Line 2 of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. It is colored green on the Seoul Metropolitan Subway map. ☜